The Welsh Government has unveiled a new sustainable farming scheme which is considering detailed proposals at present and will decide on a final scheme design in 2023 after a full economic analysis has been conducted. At the current stage, farmers are encouraged to help shape the upcoming scheme, due to commence in 2025, by completing a 15–20 minute survey which can be found linked within the page at the end of this post. The survey is open for submissions until the 31st October 2022.
The scheme is set to empower farmers, regardless of farm type, to continue to produce excellent quality agricultural products with the addition of sustainable farming and land management practices. It aims to incentivise uptake of the scheme through various means and at different levels with some actions required scheme-wide (universal) while others are optional or collaborative, these will be the most challenging, especially collaborative actions, but will also have the highest levels of reward including additional financial incentives on top of those gained from completing the universal actions. Other incentives are mentioned to include access to tools, technical support and access to advice and guidance on how to access the scheme and how to best carry out the actions they are required to and any additional actions the wish to complete. All these actions are to build up a more individual and nationally sustainable farming network.
Interestingly, third parties which are part of the rural community, that aren’t farmers, can also get involved in the process through a feedback form found on the page.
Read more on the scheme here.