THE Farmers’ Union of Wales today demanded that the Welsh Assembly Government‘s Tir Mynydd scheme should be extended and that the implementation date for the proposed Glastir scheme be postponed due to numerous concerns.
Under WAG plans Tir Mynydd, a compensatory payment that recognises the Less Favoured (LFA) status of 80% of Wales’s land, will be replaced with Glastir, an all‑Wales agri‑environmental scheme.
However, the FUW believes that there are now strong grounds for extending the Tir Mynydd scheme and delaying the introduction of the Glastir scheme.
Under the current proposals, the last Tir Mynydd scheme year will be 2010 while the Glastir scheme will not start until 2012, meaning there is a 12‑month gap without any LFA or similar scheme running.
Chairman of the FUW’s hill farming and marginal land committee, Powys sheep farmer Derek Morgan said: “The budget for the 2011 Tir Mynydd scheme was originally set at £25 million, which would normally have been paid in early 2012. Yet this money seems to have been shifted, leaving a 12‑month period with no scheme running.
“There are also complex issues that need addressing in terms of the new Glastir scheme, particularly with regard to the precise scheme rules and farmers’ inability to make business decisions based on unknown outcomes of current negotiations.
“There are also major questions about how the scheme will operate on the common land that is so crucial to many regions of Wales.
“The FUW remains fundamentally opposed to the abandonment of Tir Mynydd and its replacement with a non‑LFA scheme. Notwithstanding this, we believe that there is now significant justification for postponing the 2012 Glastir implementation date.
“Significant concerns include the finalising of scheme rules and the relaying of these to farmers, so that they can properly assess the scheme, the need for a full economic impact analysis, and the completion and analysis of pilot studies that will assess the potential impact of the new scheme.”
Due to these concerns, rural affairs minister Elin Jones has agreed to meet with the FUW in mid‑December.
