New rural minister signals reset for Welsh farming

Wales’ new rural affairs minister, Llyr Gruffydd, has pledged a more supportive approach to farming, signalling potential changes to farm support, water regulations and bovine TB policy within days of taking office.

Speaking to Farmers Weekly shortly after his appointment, Mr Gruffydd said farmers should expect a government that better understands the industry.

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“They will find that they now have a government that’s on their side,” he said.

“I’m more instinctively in tune with the industry, and I hope that that will be reflected in the way that I operate.”

SFS concerns acknowledged

Mr Gruffydd said he recognised concerns surrounding the Sustainable Farming Scheme (SFS), including fears the current structure may not work for some family farms.

He confirmed he had already begun discussions with farming unions to understand why some businesses had been reluctant to join the scheme.

“I need them to tell me some of the barriers that meant some chose not to come into the SFS,” he said.

“I’m not going to come into post and start to dictate without obviously speaking to the industry.”

The minister also reiterated Plaid Cymru’s commitment to protecting the agricultural budget and providing greater certainty with a multi-year funding cycle – a commitment Plaid Cymru said it would deliver in its first 100 days of government.

“We will ring fence as an absolute baseline the existing budget for farm support, and move to give the sector longer-term, multi-year funding certainty,” he said.

“Giving them 12 months’ line of sight to funding, I don’t think is sufficient.”

Shift on NVZs

On water pollution regulations, Mr Gruffydd backed moving away from rigid “farming by calendar” rules towards a more flexible, risk-based approach, reflecting recommendations made in last year’s statutory review, led by Dr Susannah Bolton.

“We need a more targeted, proportionate approach,” he said, and added that he was “particularly keen” to move away from calendar-based restrictions because “the weather doesn’t play ball anymore”.

Mr Gruffydd said he planned to meet the group responsible for implementing the Bolton review recommendations to explore potential changes, although he warned that some reforms could take time if legislation is required.

Bovine TB

The minister also indicated a willingness to revisit Wales’ bovine TB strategy.

“I’m very open to changing that current approach,” he said, supporting the TB Programme Board’s position that the disease must be tackled “among the human population, but also among livestock and in wildlife”.

Addressing wider concerns about food security, Mr Gruffydd argued that environmental policy and productive farming must work together.

“Climate change impacts farming as much as any other part of society, so they do need to go hand in hand, and addressing some of these issues will help strengthen food security.”

Farmers will now be watching closely to see how quickly those early pledges translate into policy changes on the ground.