CLA PRESIDENT GREETS DEFRA REPORT WITH CALL TO GOVERNMENT
COUNTRY Land and Business Association (CLA) President Victoria Vyvyan has praised the new UK Government to commit to a ‘full budget’ for farming for the benefit of potato growers and others in UK agriculture.
The recent publication of Defra’s annual Farming and Countryside Programme report reveals an under-spend of the farming budget of more than £500m in recent years.
Victoria said: “Take-up in the early stages of ELMs was cautious, but SFI 23 and SFI 24 have seen increasing confidence and there are now many thousands of farmers engaged in the project. It is a good programme and now is not the time to falter.
“The UK Government is building a new way of working with farmers and land managers to deliver good outcomes for food and for the environment, and we will need our full budget to make it work.
“The government’s ambitions are the right ones, but they cannot be delivered on a shoestring. In next month’s budget, the government should commit to an annual £3.8bn farming budget to safeguard the future of our landscapes and rural businesses.”
The report can be found here.
IMPORT CHANGES ARE GOOD NEWS FOR POTATO BUSINESSES AND CONSUMERS
