NFU makes urgent call for new direction from Defra

NFU President Peter Kendall will make an urgent call for a new direction at Defra at tomorrow’s Royal Show, demanding the addition of a new Public Service Agreement (PSA) for productive agriculture.

Currently, the two PSA targets at Defra focus on climate change and the environment, and Mr Kendall will make it clear that, at a time when food security dominates the political and media agenda, it is time for a strong productive agriculture to be added as an objective.

“Twelve months ago I called for an early warning system for agriculture, measuring our output against the rest of Europe. Who would have believed we would have seen such monumental change in food and farming, with agriculture making almost daily appearances on the business pages of the national press? It really has brought home the big global dynamic in which we operate.

“And yet, with all this going on, all too often the messages coming out of Government hark back to the early 2000s, focusing on the problems of the past instead of the challenges and opportunities of the future. Incredibly, we have no PSA for productive agriculture at Defra in the current spending review, which runs until 2011.

“We have an astonishing debate going on over the future of set-aside, with the Prime Minister commenting that the EU must take action on the elements of the CAP that raise the cost of food for consumers and yet Defra discussing proposals which would take yet more land out of production. We have a policy on the Seasonal Agricultural Workers’ Scheme dictated by the politics of immigration instead of the need to protect home production, and the on-going needless waste of tens of thousands of productive cattle to TB in the face of continued prevarication by the Secretary of State. There is a lack of coherence in the messages coming out of Government.

“The challenge I will be laying down at the Royal Show will be for a redressing of the balance; the pendulum has swung too far towards environmental and other targets. We accept the need for strong environmental responsibility, but that has to sit alongside the need for a clear cut focus on the importance of productive agriculture. It is quite possible for the two to go hand in hand.

“The agenda has moved on, and yet Defra is not moving with it. Any business which stuck doggedly to a three-year business plan which took no account of vast changes in its operating environment would find itself in the bankruptcy courts – we cannot afford to take that risk when it comes to our food security,” said Mr Kendall.


Notes to editors

PSA targets are negotiated between Treasury and government departments; the department’s funding during a three-year spending review period is conditional on the PSA being met.
The NFU suggests a new production PSA, requiring the UK’s share of EU agricultural production to be at least maintained over the next three years.


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The NFU champions British farming and provides professional representation and services to its farmer and grower members.