It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Nokes. I thank my neighbour, my hon. Friend the Member for Eastbourne (Caroline Ansell), for securing this debate. As luck would have it, on Friday morning I and some of my farmers met the NFU over bacon sandwiches and tea, and we discussed many of the issues that she has raised.
I want to raise four key areas with the Minister. The first is the cost of food production. As a farmer, he will know only too well the particular cost of fertilisers. The Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board estimates that there has been a 152% increase in the cost of fertiliser since May 2021, and farmers are struggling to afford it. That has a knock-on effect on the cost of the food that they produce, the costs in our supermarkets, and the overall cost of inflation, which is affecting each and every one of us.
If farmers can afford fertiliser, the struggle to get it seems even greater. We produce only 40% of our own fertiliser, and one of the two plants that we had has closed, again, due to running costs and the cost of energy. There is real concern because some countries that were exporting to us have capped exports in order to bring costs down in their own country and because of the global availability. Access to fertiliser is therefore a huge problem.
I know that the Government have brought in the BPS payments in several chunks to improve cash flow and that they have reduced restrictions around the use of manure. That has helped, but it only scratches the surface of the problem.
Farmers have two key asks. The first is to grow our domestic supply of fertiliser. What discussions have there been with Ministers in other Departments on supporting the fertiliser sector and increasing production so that we are more self-sufficient as a country? The second ask is about the storage of slurry. It is difficult and expensive for farmers, and some of the regulations on slurry covers mean that it is also impractical. They are keen to be able to store it, but improvements to the rules and regulations, and support to increase storage, would help them greatly.
The second key area is ELMS. I echo what my hon. Friend the Member for Eastbourne has said. An NFU survey found that 84% of farmers are keen to take part in ELMS, but only two parts of the scheme are open. The NFU also mentioned access to SFI, which is difficult. Of course, we want to protect and promote the environment, but we must increase food production and be as self-sufficient as possible in this country. The two do not need to be mutually exclusive. Farmers are very keen to get involved, but there are no timelines and no details. As the Minister knows, they need certainty before investing in equipment and staff. They need the forward-thinking plans one or two years in advance, and time is running out.
The third area that was raised with me was labour. I met dairy farmers, poultry farmers and arable farmers who all said the same thing: they need an all-year-round supply of staff, not just seasonal workers. Their two key asks are to expand the temporary worker visa to two years and to look at whether agricultural workers could be on the shortage occupations list. What discussions have there been with the Home Office on that? Particularly in the south-east, where the cost of living is high, it is difficult for farmers to find workers to do quite low-paid but difficult jobs.
My fourth and final ask is around avian flu, which is a huge problem for us in Sussex. It is starting to emerge—thanks to West Sussex—and it might affect my East Sussex poultry farmers fairly soon. The sheer scale is something that has never been seen before by poultry farmers in this country—they are used to seasonal avian flu. They are locking up their free-range chickens and using the measures that are in place, but inspectors are overworked. The compensation scheme is based on the number of birds a farmer has left when the inspector comes to call. The inspectors used to be able to visit 48 hours or 72 hours after a call, but they are now turning up two or three weeks later, when all the birds are dead. We are not talking about a few dozen birds, but hundreds of thousands, and farmers are going out of business.
The clean-up scheme is costing in the millions—not the hundreds of thousands. With all that is going on in the world, avian flu does not seem to be high on the agenda, but it is wiping out the egg industry in my patch. My poultry farmers who are left could sell their eggs hundreds of times over because there is such a shortage, but if their birds get infected, those farmers will be wiped out, and there is no coming back because of the cost. Can we therefore look at the compensation scheme or at least at supporting the assessors so that they can get out to farmers as quickly as possible? Can we support farmers across their whole flock, rather than looking at the number of birds that are still alive by the time the assessor sees them? Can I also ask about a vaccine roll-out? I am not an expert, but apparently there is a vaccine available. Farmers are keen to get involved, even if there are pilot studies to be done, because they are so worried about avian flu hitting their farms.
I have outlined my four key areas. I look forward to hearing from the Minister how we can support our farmers, who do an amazing job. Now that we have seen what has happened to Ukraine, which was the breadbasket of Europe, we can appreciate more than ever the hard work of our farmers, who get up early and work into the night. They are dependent on the weather for their
living and put in all the hours. If they get a bad season, it hits them really badly. I just want to place on record my thanks to them, and I hope we can support them in all that they do.
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