Patrick Godwin
Patrick Godwin
Patrick Godwin is farm
manager for the 930ha
(2300 acre) Lee Farm
Partnership, Angmering
Estate, West Sussex. Soils
are chalk-based with
combinable winter and
spring crops occupying
525ha (1300 acres)
AT last we have settled weather. What a difference it can make to a farming week.
Looking at my records I see that since January we have had 480mm (19in) of rain. That is, within a few millimetres, the same as in the first six months of last year.
A sustained effort over the Jubilee weekend saw all our flag leaf sprays completed. Early morning starts and late evening work ensured that we applied the critical fungicides and avoided strong winds in the middle of the day.
Six large influential rural organisations have banded together to ask the government to implement the recommendations in the policy commission report on the future of farming.
It is a pretty diverse group made up of The Country Land and Business Association, RSPB, Countryside Agency, Food and Drink Federation, National Consumer Council and the National Trust.
Together they have asked that the £500m the Curry report demanded be put into next months comprehensive spending review.
Other groups are also campaigning to highlight the countrysides plight, including Friends of the Earth, the Wildlife Trusts and the Ramblers Association, which has a postcard campaign aimed at Tony Blair.
What I find interesting and heartening is their range of interests. They all have their own particular axes to grind, but all realise that without a strong agriculture the countryside as we know it will disappear.
Improvements in biodiversity on a national scale are far more likely with a buoyant agri-economy. Assured, traceable and locally produced foods can be produced only from profitable farms. Farmhouse B&Bs and local hotels will find business much better within a vibrant countryside.
The government must realise that agriculture is the engine room of the rural economy. The countryside is as it is because farming and field sports have made it so. Lets hope that its future is shaped as a result of government support and not lack of it. *
Government must learn to appreciate that agriculture is the engine room of the rural economy, says Patrick Godwin.