Sustainable Farming Methods

2. Questions to the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs – in the Senedd at on 9 October 2024.

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Photo of Jenny Rathbone Jenny Rathbone Labour

(Translated)

5. What is the Welsh Government doing to get more farmers practicing sustainable farming methods? OQ61666

Photo of Huw Irranca-Davies Huw Irranca-Davies Labour 3:13, 9 October 2024

Thank you, Jenny. Our ambition is for a vibrant, prosperous and sustainable farming industry. In the lead-up to the introduction of the sustainable farming scheme, the Welsh Government is already supporting farmers through Farming Connect, as well as through capital grant schemes.

Photo of Jenny Rathbone Jenny Rathbone Labour

Thank you. I share that ambition, and I'm amazed at how many ambassadors there are of sustainable farming. I met one of them upstairs in the Neuadd yesterday who was actively involved in increasing the number of curlews, whilst also having such improved grass that they were having to reduce the feedstuff they were giving to their cows to avoid them becoming sick. Equally, over the summer, I visited Hywel Morgan's farm in Myddfai in Carmarthenshire, where they have increased their tree cover, and controlled their water to improve the shelter for all their animals, and to enable them to stay outdoors for most of the year, reducing their stocks and increasing their income. Similarly, the economy committee went to mid Wales and saw the biggest organic farm in England and Wales last week, run by a water company with the RSPB. And all these are fantastic examples of how we can combine science and lived experience to save the world from the climate emergency, and the biodiversity. So, how can we increase the numbers who are applying for the schemes that you were mentioning earlier to James Evans and enable more people to embrace this much more effective and profitable method of farming more quickly?

Photo of Huw Irranca-Davies Huw Irranca-Davies Labour 3:14, 9 October 2024

Thank you, Jenny, and I think you usefully shatter that false dichotomy between farming and climate resilience, or farming and biodiversity, or farming and nature. Actually, the best farmers are doing incredible work at the moment in doing all of that and quality food production as well, and sustaining our local schools and communities too, and the Welsh language. So, food production is vital, but, actually, the major risk to food production in the long term is the lack of climate resilience and the diminution of natural processes on those farm and landscape areas as well. So, we can't keep having a separate conversation about food or farming versus the environment, they're one and the same, they're dependent on each other.

Now, the SFS is going to be critical to this, the sustainable farming scheme, which we're working on intensely in the ministerial round-tables, the officials group, the carbon sequestration group, with a range of stakeholders involved in that to try and get to a conclusion where we share the objectives of what we're trying to do with genuinely sustainable farming, building on some of the work that you've alluded to already and some of the good practice that's out there, but designing a scheme that is accessible to all those farmers who want to be part of it and drive forward in that direction, so underpinned by the sustainable land management objectives that are within the Agriculture (Wales) Act 2023.

We're in this transition period now as we move towards 2026. We're working intensely with all stakeholders to try and get the sustainable farming scheme right. If we do, it will provide a blueprint for the future of sustainable farming and for farming that actually builds into itself resilience as well against the traumatic weather incidents that we're seeing, that provides that shelter for livestock and for cattle and sheep on their farm that has good-quality soil, rich soil and so on. So, that's what we're trying to do, but, meanwhile, we will also continue with the Habitat Wales scheme as well, in terms of habitat land. We'll continue to work on our designated sites, going forward. So, we haven't stopped, we're keeping on going in the work that we're doing and, hopefully, by the start, then, of 2026, we'll be able to launch that new scheme that will genuinely deliver sustainable farming now and in the future.