NSA Breakfast Club - A united approach? A morning briefing on post-Brexit approaches in the four UK nations
Date: 3rd February 2021
Time: 8.30am
Location: Online - zoom webinar
Below is a report on the contents of this webinar. To watch the webinar on demand please visit www.nationalsheep.org.uk/webinars/.
“A united approach? – an early morning briefing on post-Brexit approaches in the four UK nations’, was the third of our breakfast club webinars, hosted by new NSA chairman Dan Phipps. It was another great success with audiences from across all the UK nations.
Janet Hughes (Programme Director), Future Farming and Countryside Programme from Defra took the captains seat and opened the webinar with a lively and thoroughly enthusiastic overview of future policy changes in England. She provided a clear update on the current situation of the seven-year Agricultural Transition Plan, covering the phasing out of direct payments and injection of these funds back into farmer prosperity, local nature recovery and land use change. It was satisfying to hear that there is scope in the new schemes for all farmers to be involved and that Defra are keen to work openly with farmers to trial, test, adjust and adapt schemes to ensure they deliver a successful, sustainable future.
Following on from Janet, Ian Stevenson Chief Executive of Livestock Marketing Commission provided an in-depth presentation on changes occurring in Northern Ireland. In similarity to England, there was a key objective for increased productivity, increased resilience and support for nature friendly farming. He also spoke on their proposals to invest in an integrated, sustainable and responsive supply chain and a keen requirement for some kind of rural disadvantage area scheme.
John Kerr, Deputy Director of Agriculture Policy Division for Scottish Government took hold of the reins, stressing that despite Brexit occurring, this decision was against the will of most Scots and Scottish Government. Scotland’s position on future policy changes differed somewhat from the previous speakers in that there was a big drive to promote the value of food production as a public good in its own right and no immediate plans to remove the basic payments scheme. Commonality occurred on agreement that producers are ‘custodians of the land’ and highlighted their importance as the backbone of rural communities. Many of Scotland’s reform will focus on working towards achieving the EU commissions climate change targets with a strong emphasis on woodland creation and peatland restoration for carbon storage… A potential challenge that sheep farmers may be confronted with in the future.
Conscious of time limits, James Owen Deputy Director of Land Management Reform Division for Welsh Government gave a brief overview of changes occurring in Wales, concentrating on the opportunities that leaving the EU offers for future agricultural policy. Like Scotland, Welsh Government plan to put emphasis on sustainable food production as a key objective alongside tackling climate change and making improvements to biodiversity. Agriculture and the environment go hand in hand and with many sheep farmers in Wales occupying rural landscapes, the importance of rural payment schemes to ensure sustainable land management and economically viable farms being stressed was well received.
The session concluded with a lively debate with a range of questions posed to the panel from our audience. With countless questions continuing to come in, Dan had to conclude the session with a list of ‘homework’ questions for our panel. It was great to fully understand how transformation to agricultural policy diversifies across all our nations with many areas of overlap and it’s also reassuring to be represented by lead government officials who have a keen passion to support farming.
