LAST Friday (Dec 9), local farmers and businesses gathered in Babel, Llandovery, to attend a farm visit with Baroness Eluned Morgan AM, organised by the Farmers’ Union of Wales, to assess the condition of the rural economy.
The event was hosted by FUW’s Carmarthen County chairman, Iwan Price-Davies.
The FUW has been and continues to run a campaign #FarmingMatters which aims to demonstrate why agriculture and rural communities must be a priority in terms of the negotiation as the government prepares for the UK’s dep arture from the EU.
Family farms are particularly at the heart of the rural economy, caring for landscape, and culture. They make innumerable other contributions to the well-being to Wales and the UK.
Welsh food production sustains tens of thousands of other businesses from feed merchants, agricultural contractors and engineers to hauliers, processors and retailers.
For every pound that is generated on a farm, around six pounds is spent within the wider economy.
The Welsh landscape helps attract millions of tourists to Wales every year.
As managers of around 80% of Wales’ landmass, farmers play an invaluable part in managing and preserving a landscape that provides clean drinking water for millions and is diverse with habitat and species which includes more than 1,000 Sites of Special Scientific Interest.
Farming is underpinned by science and technology and is the backbone of the Welsh food and drinks sector, which sees around 222,400 people employed – 17% of the Welsh workforce.
Through providing employment and economic growth in rural areas, the farming sector mitigates rural depopulation, protects rural culture and heritage and provides a means by which the Welsh language can be maintained.
To further highlight why #Farmingmatters, the FUW invited a selection of businesses who work with the Price-Davies Family to highlight why farming matters to their individual enterprises as well as the wider rural economy and community.
Businesses included Clee Tompkinson Francis, British Wool Marketing Board, Wynnstay, G.T& E Feeds and Carrs Billington, where they had the opportunity to voice their opinion about the future of the rural economy and the difficulties that they face as governments prepare for Brexit, along with the current trends that they are seeing as businesses and farmers. Eluned Morgan AM clearly heard these comments and responded to the concerns expressed.
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