Debate contribution: Farmers' Basic Payment Scheme

Debate contribution by Miss Michelle McIlveen on 7 October 2024.

MLA

Miss Michelle McIlveen

Party at the time

Democratic Unionist Party

Date

7 October 2024

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Farmers' Basic Payment Scheme

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4579732

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I thank those who tabled the motion for bringing the important matter of financial support for farmers to the Chamber. The majority of western countries support farmers directly or indirectly, and they are our competitors for sales and inputs. Not addressing the issue puts our farmers and economy at a competitive disadvantage. I acknowledge the inclusion of pillar 2 in the previous amendment. It is an oversight that the importance of rural development funding and the difference that it has made to our rural communities is not explicit in our amendment. However, the call for increased ring-fenced, inflation-proofed and multi-annual farm support and a development budget to support our farmers and the wider agricultural sector is missing from the motion and amendment No 1. It is worth repeating how important the farming and agri-food sector is to our local economy. Food and drink production is worth £6 billion to the Northern Ireland economy. It is our largest manufacturing sector, supports a workforce of around 113,000 and is served by a range of other sectors, such as transport, animal health and construction. Farms are required to undergo massive changes and meet huge challenges to become financially viable and more environmentally sustainable, including the target set by the Assembly under the Climate Change Act. The cost of production has also increased massively, and, of course, farmers also face the impact of changes in our climate. The basic farm payment is a hugely important in enabling farmers to manage and cushion market volatility. The latest set of total income from farming figures (TIFF) show that income has reduced by around 46%. There are around 26,000 active farm businesses in Northern Ireland, which employ about 51,000 people. It is, therefore, a cornerstone of our local economy. The UFU recognises:

"The long-term resilience of Northern Ireland's agri-food sector hinges on targeted investments in local food production and sustainable farming practices."

Let us consider the challenges facing local farmers. For more than 10 years, inflation has not been factored into the Agriculture budget. It has been a cut, year-on-year, in real terms. The Government expect farmers to do more for less. Some 10 years ago, the CAP budget was in place to help to support the production of cheaper food. However, farmers are now expected to use the budget to reduce ammonia emissions, reduce their carbon footprint and produce food to a higher welfare standard, while somehow still keeping food prices low. A policy that started as a food policy expanded to a rural development and agri-environment policy, and now we have climate change, biodiversity, water and air quality and animal health and welfare issues to factor in.

Whilst there is a strong argument that says that the UK Government should increase their budget, local Ministers can and must do more to help the sector. There is a need for major capital investment on farms to meet the challenges being faced through the demands that are placed on farmers to improve efficiency, reduce carbon footprints, invest in technology and develop expertise. Future support from DAERA needs to go towards helping productive farmers to produce food efficiently in an environmentally sustainable way. If the Minister walks away from previous commitments, that will result in a real danger that farmers will turn their back on the support scheme and will not claim any government support. That will mean that the Government have less ability to influence the sector and deliver necessary change. It is evident that maintaining the level of direct support at 2020 levels is not sustainable. It ignores inflationary increases and does not take cognisance of the other pressures that farmers now face. We need to see future allocations being inflation-proofed in order to ensure that farm businesses are protected and treated equitably. That is vital for our food security, particularly given how uncertain and volatile global markets have been seen to be. Safeguarding direct farm support needs to be central to government policy on promoting food production and food security. For example, since 2020, the cost of keeping a ewe has increased by £24 per animal. The cost of vaccinations has increased by 175%, the cost of worming and fluke by 75% and the cost of machinery by 100% — all in the past four years. A ton of lamb pellets has increased from £200 in 2020 to £320 in 2024. In that time, the cost of a 580 kg straw bale has gone up from £40 to £130. One small Armagh dairy farm has 60 cows as its main enterprise. Its BPS total was £7,700. It will lose £700 from the 2024 BPS and a further £650 in 2025. That money would have covered conacre costs, which have increased from £160 per acre to £280 per acre. Milk prices are slightly above break-even, but, as I noted, input costs have increased significantly. How are smallholdings meant to survive? In addition to the much-needed financial support, there is so much more that the Minister could do to help farmers create sustainability and effect necessary change. Inaction stymies progress. The Minister must be mindful of the need for generational renewal. Farmers are getting older, and it is getting harder to attract young farmers. Uncertainty, poor policymaking and a lack of financial support make that renewal even harder. I am delighted that the deputy First Minister, in her engagement with the Chancellor, made our concerns known regarding Labour's position on a possible change to inheritance tax and the impact that that would have on our farming community. We have raised planning policy this term. The current environmental policy has stopped virtually all agricultural development in Northern Ireland. That is fundamentally wrong. Farmers who want to improve their farm buildings in order to improve their businesses and the environment cannot do so. For example, a farmer who wishes to install a new milking parlour that will reduce the time that the animals are milking and increase the time that they are outdoors at grass cannot get it through the planning system. That is madness. Last week's announcement on the A5 upgrade is welcome progress for improving road safety and connectivity, but there is still a huge amount of uncertainty for farmers along the route. Farmers who will lose farm buildings cannot get planning permission for new buildings because of inaction to address the anomaly in the current ammonia policy. Will the Minister undertake to address that issue for the farms that are affected? He needs to be an advocate for the local farmers who are affected in such instances. TB is estimated to be costing £60 million, which is money that could be better spent in the Agriculture budget. I appreciate that a review is being undertaken, but there is a genuine concern among the farming community that the fundamental issues pertaining to TB will be kicked down the road. Despite that large sum of money, the disease is not being controlled as it is in our neighbouring jurisdictions. The current TB problems are closely related to the need for an adequate basic payment. Take a farm with 70 suckler cows, a £20,000 BPS and 65 suckler calves to be sold in the autumn. If that farm went down with bovine TB before the sale, the farmer would have to keep 65 extra cattle over the winter until the farm was TB-free.

The BPS is needed to cover the costs of those additional cattle, rather than for paying annual bills. In the absence or lowering of the BPS, farms such as that could not survive. There is understandable despondency among the farming community. There are reduced margins; increased red tape; heightened risks of bluetongue, maedi-visna (MV) and bird flu; the unbalanced focus on farmers over Lough Neagh; and increasing demands to do more with less. The UFU tells us that the agriculture sector in Northern Ireland is at tipping point. There is a need for government intervention — financial and practical. The message that the UFU is sending out is stark: without increased government support, the sector risks decline in farm incomes; increased job losses in rural areas; and a reduction in the production of the high-quality, sustainable food that a country relies on. The basic farm payment is an investment in the future of rural communities. It is also an investment in the economy and in environmental sustainability and social well-being. I urge the Minister to be the advocate and policymaker whom the sector needs for its long-term survival. There are 670,000 people living in rural Northern Ireland, with thousands of jobs relying on farming and the wider agri-food sector. With increasing policy demands being made of our farmers and spiralling costs from international instability, there is a need for an increased, ring-fenced, inflation-proofed and multi-annual farm support and development budget to support our farmers and the wider agricultural sector.

1,473 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 11:23 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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