My Lords, I am delighted to support my noble friend Lord Lucas. I have put my name to Amendments 58 and 119. The Minister will recall that I majored on the whole question of advice in my Second Reading speech. I dedicated all my time to it because I think it is so important.
Farming has been partially insulated from market pressures by the support schemes of the CAP. In particular, the area payments developed by the CAP since 1992 and subsequent steps in 2003 and 2013 have acted to reward land occupation, not business activity. This has been associated with reduced flexibility in land occupation markets, and thus with the relative weakness in the United Kingdom’s agricultural productivity growth.
The progressive removal of area payments and the prospect of more open trading agreements seem likely to drive an accelerated process of change in who is farming what land and how, by both unwinding the protectionist effects of past area payments and responding to the coming changes. This might affect poorer businesses on more marginal land in particular, whether cropping or livestock. My concern is that this process of change should be managed to maximise its economic, environmental and social benefits, while minimising costs.
Farming’s adaptation to the new policy and business environment will not be a simple and swift transformation, but will take much time and effort. The scale of the challenges and the changes associated with them should not be underestimated. Success will require attention to skills and training, investment, approaches to sustained innovation in business policy, technology and marketing. It will be all the better if this is enabled by a new positive regulatory regime after Brexit, ensuring flexible and open markets in land occupation and use. All this must be supported by effective and practical advice and facilitation.
The outcome will be a much less standardised industry than the one we created since the war through policies before and under the CAP, which were largely dedicated to full-time commodity protection. Achieving this will be a major call on all those involved, not only Governments and farmers.
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At Second Reading, I quoted a statement from the Welsh Government. I will repeat it and hope my noble friend the Minister will confirm that he agrees with it:
“Advice should be seen as an investment in the capacity of farmers and farms rather than a cost”.
My noble friend Lord Lucas also talked about the importance of the need to experiment; schemes might go right, they might go wrong. I draw the House’s attention, as I did earlier, to the Northern Devon Nature
Improvement Area. The reason that has worked, as well stated in its report, is that the key to achieving its objectives was the creation of
“an integrated and co-ordinated advisory service to landowners.”
That is the purpose of these amendments. I hope the Minister will respond favourably to them.
I have one other point which did not occur to me when I put my name to this amendment, because I was looking at the farmers’ point of view. County shows, which principally exist to educate us about food, farming, the countryside and the wider environment, have been going a long time but are now in very uncertain territory. Most of them take about nine months or so to plan. What will happen next year? As my noble friend is aware, the shows have been cancelled this year. What will the guidance be for those planning mass gatherings next year? How soon will that information become available?
Also, will there be any financial assistance for events such as county shows? They are in jeopardy of falling by the wayside and giving up because they have not been given the attention they deserve. I hope my noble friend can comment on both those points, because I know he has lauded county shows in the past in this House. I support him on that. Defra would be a poorer department if it did not have the help from county shows in educating us the way they do.