No plans to pause Welsh farming subsidy scheme
There is still concern over Wales’s Sustainable Farming Scheme.
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Despite huge protests, there are no plans to pause the roll out of Wales’s controversial subsidy scheme for farmers, according to Wales’s new rural affairs secretary, Huw Irranca-Davies.
The Welsh government’s Sustainable Farming Scheme (SFS) is set to be introduced from April 2025.
Mr Irranca-Davies claimed “knotty issues” with the plans could be worked out and he was “seeing what other ideas were out there” with regards to farms needing 10% tree cover.
Last month, thousands of farmers took to the steps of Welsh parliament to protest against post-Brexit farming changes, concerns over bovine tuberculosis and tougher agri-pollution regulations (News, 13 March). Their protests seem to have been ignored.
Farmer and television personality Gareth Wyn Jones told Shooting Times: “Initially I was very pleased with the appointment of a new climate and rural affairs minister; however, I was disappointed with his first interview, especially his remarks about TB.
“With respect to SFS, I was disappointed again. We desperately need to readdress the situation and focus on the potential weight of the administrational burden future schemes will bring: 10% habitat, 10% planting trees and so on. He didn’t say much on Nitrate Vulnerable Zones but it’s early days.”