On Friday Ruth visited South Lodge Farm in Widmerpool to meet with farmers from across Rushcliffe and representatives of the NFU to discuss the issues and current changes happening in agriculture.
It was the start of what will be a quarterly forum for constituents working in farming.
The Government’s Environmental Land Management schemes (ELMs) were a main topic of discussion as the funding from the old Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) is gradually rolled back in favour of ELMs between now and 2024.
ELMs is based on the principle of public money for public goods and is comprised of three separate schemes:
The Sustainable Farming Incentive – which pays farmers to manage their land in an environmentally sustainable way.
The Local Nature Recovery Scheme – which focuses on locally targeted actions to make space for nature in the farmed landscape (such as creating wildlife habitat and planting trees).
The Landscape Recovery Scheme – which delivers funds in return for much larger scale actions to use less productive agricultural land for habitat restoration and to reverse species decline (for example peatland restoration or rewilding).
The group also discussed the impact of energy price rises and inflation on farming, labour supply and the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme (SAWS) and the issue of rural crime. Theft and hare coursing were specifically raised as some of the crimes that have impacted farmers in Rushcliffe the most.
Ruth said: “It was a very productive first meeting of the Rushcliffe Agriculture and Rural Affairs Forum, with a lot of wide-ranging opinions and debate. It was very interesting to hear people’s perspectives and to be able to meet face to face after lots of zoom calls and emails during the pandemic.”
“I want to hear regularly from the farming community in Rushcliffe as I know that we are in a period of great change for agriculture, so I will hold four forums a year at different farms across the constituency and make sure I feed farmers’ views back to ministers in Westminster.
John Ollerton, the South Nottinghamshire rep for the NFU said:
“The farmers who came to the forum had a real opportunity to get their views heard at the top of Government, as Ruth has pledged to take the points raised into her meeting with George Eustice, the Secretary of State for DEFRA, arranged for shortly after next week’s Parliamentary recess.”
If you are a Rushcliffe constituent who works in agriculture and would like to attend a future forum, please contact Ruth’s office at: ruth.edwards.mp@parliament.uk
