Government Actions for UK Agriculture Growth - Oxford Farming Conference Poll Insights
Insights from the Oxford Farming Conference Poll 2018 reveal opinions of 373 UK farmers on key policy options for enhancing opportunities in agriculture. The respondents emphasized strategies such as improving rural broadband, developing tenancy laws, promoting trade deals, and investing in research and development. Three policy clusters emerged - Free Marketeers, Balanced Approachers, and Single Farm Payment Maintainers - reflecting diverse views on the role of government support in agriculture. SFP Maintainers stress the importance of maintaining the Single Farm Payment, while Free Marketeers prioritize trade deals and innovation funding.
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Map of Ag What should the Government be doing to create greater opportunity for UK agriculture? Oxford Farming Conference Poll 2018 Dr. T. J. McKetterick, J. G. Williams, J. A. R. Walters December 2018
What should the Government be doing to create greater opportunity for UK agriculture? 373 farmers in the UK responded to our online poll on seven policy options : - Improving rural broadband connectivity Developing tenancy law to give more incentive to tenant in return for long-term improvements to the land Making payments to farmers for provision of so called public goods Maintain the Single Farm Payment Negotiate great trade deals to open new export markets Accelerate research and development Grant funding to encourage farmers with good ideas to scale farm level innovation
Three clusters of policy preferences are apparent Other 10 3% Using cluster analysis, each respondent was put into one of three groups based on how they allocated their 100 points Free Marketeers 98 26% Get rid of SFP. Negotiate great trade deals and accelerate R+D Balanced Approach 148 40% There is a place for public money for public goods, but there needs to be more grant funding for innovation 1. 1. Balanced Balanced Approacher Farm Payment having a role, it is only in return for end market goods. They spread their points in a nuanced way across the seven policies, while dedicating a few points to policies they wrote themselves Approacher (40%) (40%) Whilst they see Single 2. 2. Single Farm Payment Maintainers (31%) Single Farm Payment Maintainers (31%) Farmers who assigned the majority of their points to the policy Maintain Single Farm Payment and gave few points to any other policies SFP Maintainers 117 31% Maintain SFP above all else 3. 3. Free Marketeers (26%) Free Marketeers (26%) They see no place for Single Farm Payment and would prefer the Government to be concentrating on negotiating great trade deals. They also have their own policy ideas which they suggest Government should consider Base 373 Respondents
Distributed responses for each policy initiative by cluster What should the Government be doing to create greater opportunity for UK agriculture? Base 373 Respondents
Other policy suggestions from the SFP Maintainers What should the Government be doing to create greater opportunity for UK agriculture? 20 Points 15 Points Major financial marketing support for UK food within UK and the EU Probably none of the above....but maintaining the SFP would be a good step! Justification for my answer? The UK is a small island and can NEVER compete globally because we can never match the scale of North America/South America, Australia/N Zealand. Austria has decided that it likes small farms and will pay farmers to maintain the traditional fabric. Tourism works in Austria because the landscape is managed by small family farms. AgriBusiness will spoil what's left of the UK 10 Points Single farm payments should be tiered allowing for higher payment for smaller units and a cut off point for units over 250 Ha 20 Points Encourage new entries in agriculture Base 85 Respondents
Other policy suggestions from the SFP Maintainers What should the Government be doing to create greater opportunity for UK agriculture? 10 Points Allow tax relief on new agricultural buildings 15 Points Improve rural policing to cut nuisance intimidation & theft 6 Points Retirement scheme for older tenant farmers based on a % of rent paid over lifetime of tenancy 10 Points Develop a working test for TB in Deer Base 85 Respondents
Other policy suggestions from the Balanced Approachers What should the Government be doing to create greater opportunity for UK agriculture? 10 Points 10 Points Reduce the amount of needless paperwork and inspections by people such as red tractor and let us get on with the job we know, filling in endless forms and bits of paper is now taking so much time up means we are not tending to our livestock and crops as much it has just got absolutely out of hand. Stop imports of biofuels and use UK production. It is not green to import biodiesel from Indonesia and Argentina, and ethanol from Brazil. To enable production in these contrives rain forests are being destroyed. In the meantime UK bio ethanol plants stand idle 25 Points Remove a lot of red tape and regulations 20 Points Grant funding to improve productivity Base 85 Respondents
Other policy suggestions from the Balanced Approachers What should the Government be doing to create greater opportunity for UK agriculture? 15 Points Remember that it is the farming of the land that has given us the magnificent countryside that we have in this country. It is diverse and if farming stops then the land will very soon revert to unusable scrub. We have a large and growing population and we need to feed them all. 10 Points TB Control 15 Points Drive forward accurate country of origin labelling for all foods including processed foods 20 Points Making sure farmers receive a good price for our quality product 18 Points Grants Available for livestock Handling Systems with Safety in. Grants for Buildings to House Sheep for Lambing and Handling Facilities. The Ideas above would improve the Health Safety and Tension for Farmers and Staff, Also losses at lambing time helping costs caused by weather conditions and ease of Lambing Base 85 Respondents
Other policy suggestions from the Free Marketeers What should the Government be doing to create greater opportunity for UK agriculture? 100 Points 100 Points Pay us to help the environment The money at present goes to people that own the land which is OK if they grow the crops. I suggest that 50% of the crops grown that the grower receives no support payment and probably pays a rent on top of that. The money is not going to people that grow and have ideas about future crops and technology, it goes to people that own land that was probably given to them. We need a fair system 50 Points Mechanisms to provide better access to the industry for young people 40 Points Stop making us uncompetitive by for example removing agrochemicals from our armoury 100 Points Stop all subsidy payments, environmental or otherwise, and after a transition period leave the industry to sink or swim by adapting to market forces Base 85 Respondents
Other policy suggestions from the Free Marketeers What should the Government be doing to create greater opportunity for UK agriculture? 50 Points Stop the Legal thieves or retailers as some call them from squeezing the producer dry by taking 40/50 %. Margin for just collecting money from consumers and sitting on the money for up to 3 months before they pay their suppliers 70 Points 40 Points Pay for emission reduction and low carbon energy supplies Eradicate TB in livestock and wildlife in the next farm ministers tenure 50 Points Have a level playing field with regard to banning chemicals in this country whilst importing from other countries which have access to the same products. Likewise the same should apply to GM and GE technology 80 Points 55 Points Go on farm and talk to the every day farmer that is the small farmer 50 Points Make UK Food production, UK food security and UK Farm Sustainability your Number 1 priority Give some assistance to horticulture which is left behind! Base 85 Respondents
Other policy suggestions from Other the remaining 10 outside of the principal 3 groups What should the Government be doing to create greater opportunity for UK agriculture? 100 Points "Scrap SFP. Instead have quoted subsidy payments to ensure Britain has a safe food supply. St present we import 40% of our food. This is neither safe nor sustainable. Maintain LFA payments to sustain a rural population, but only pay on usable production, with quotas on stock numbers. This avoids farmers keeping large breeding female numbers, with low production figures. Only pay on saleable offspring reared. Quoted if necessary. Remove total tenancy security on all new tenancies. Periods should be fixed by agreement between tenant and land lord, as should the rest of the tenancy agreement. This would release much more land onto the market for potential tenants 35 Points Make supermarkets pay a fair price for food that is produced ethically, efficiently and considerately. And reward farmers who do this. The market needs to drive change rather than the government 40 Points SCHEME TO LET YOUNG FARMERS COME INTO FARMING 40 Points Encourage improvements to on-farm infrastructure with grants for building improvements, storage facilities and drainage. This will lead to greater efficiency both in the yard and the field 35 Points Maintaining less favoured area payment Base: 85 Respondents
Other policy suggestions from Other the remaining 10 outside of the principal 3 groups What should the Government be doing to create greater opportunity for UK agriculture? 80 Points 36 Points To have more control of the supply chain so that farmers are paid a fair price for their produce. The price we are paid for our milk does not cover the cost of production Diversify away from agriculture. Giving Tax incentives 30 Points Reduce burden of bureaucracy, red tape and government interference 40 Points Grant aid infrastructure 75 Points 1. Encourage the production of food rather than importing unsecured products. 2. Remove the tax advantages to so called Agri businesses who continually keep the land values high. Give tax advantages to genuine farming businesses earning at least 80% of their income from the land. 3. Improve the tenants laws and encourage the removal of tenants who prevent new entrants from getting a chance to farm. 4. Encourage working farmers back into farms, co-ops not contracts. Base: 85 Respondents
Responses to the final question: This is your opportunity to influence Government policy - if you were given the chance to speak directly to Michael Gove, what would you say? The Single Farm Payment is VITAL to beef and sheep farmers and must be maintained at or near its current level. If you want to direct some payments to the environment, focus on basing payments on improving soil organic matter. This will not only improve the health of our soils but will also aid carbon sequestration. He needs to realize that farmers are in business to produce food and in doing so make a reasonable profit. At some point if a reasonable profit isn't sensibly achievable then the food production aspect is going to stop! You are listening to people without any depth of knowledge of growing food for this country at the same time as looking after the environment. This country has a cheap food policy which has back fired on so many fronts but you're not reacting to the evidence Get your finger out do what is right for the country and not what is right for the self centred politicians and get food production up the agenda so we can put a workable policy in place to safeguard our industry and future food supplies
Responses to the final question: This is your opportunity to influence Government policy - if you were given the chance to speak directly to Michael Gove, what would you say? There is a need for stability over the Brexit transition period and until a final deal has bedded in. That very much means maintaining pillar one support in its present form over that period. The target of any future support will depend on the economic environment created by the final Brexit settlement. It may well be that support will be linked to public goods or delivering climate change efficiencies however that must be calculated to provide a meaningful margin for implementation and management. The present income forgone formula will break the industry. Do not allow efficient, well - managed businesses to be penalised and damaged in order to satisfy an open- ended social commitment Profitable farms will give the best environmental and public goods. Don't make the mistake of thinking cheap imports will allow land to be taken out of production in this country. Other countries environments and the transporting of goods will probably have a greater impact on the planet than producing at home.
Responses to the final question: This is your opportunity to influence Government policy - if you were given the chance to speak directly to Michael Gove, what would you say? Your current proposals to reward 'Public goods' post Brexit has absolutely no support among the wide range of farmers I know. Many farms have already gone as far down this path as is consistent with maintaining a profitable business. Also such payments in the past in Scotland have always been awarded very largely to estates and large farms which can satisfy qualifying criteria much easier than small farms. The current SFP is a fair system to all farmers and landowners and 95% of the farmers I know wish to see it continue Please do not forget farming in spite of the lack of it's mention in the title of your ministry. We have seen our fishing fleet decimated by Europe so when we leave, it would be good to get it up and running again. The way TB in the UK is being dealt with is affecting all the farmers in the cattle industry beyond belief. Until the public and government accept that the wildlife needs culling in affected areas to put the badger population back in balance with the rest of our native species it will keep spreading. There is no logic in letting these animals who are top of their food chain spread this terrible disease. I would like to see the general public and the politicians watch as a nearly full term calf is dropped on the floor of the abattoir from a cow who MAY have TB diagnosed by a test which in most cases is not accurate. The trouble is we are all too busy working to have the time to fight our corner alone! People can't eat trees!
Conclusions All seven policies specified have some appeal with the farmers we polled Our three clusters, Balanced Balanced Appoachers Appoachers, SFP Maintainers Marketeers Marketeers would ask government to give different emphasis to each policy Balanced Balanced Approachers Approachers are nuanced in their approach to policy thinking that all the polices are worthy of consideration, including continuation of Single Farm Payment SFP Maintainers SFP Maintainers allocated most of their points to continuing with Single Farm Payment and gave very few to other policy ideas Free Marketeers Free Marketeers want to see the end of Single Farm Payment and see free trade as a major opportunity, along with less farm input bans and clearly want less regulation and freedom to farm. SFP Maintainers and Free Free
Map of Ag Contact Details Jim Williams Email: jim.williams@mapof.ag Mobil: +447775906050
Methodology: Data Collection Farms of all sizes throughout the UK were emailed with a self-completion online survey Farmers were invited to allocate 100 points across the seven prompted policy options Respondents were allowed to allocate points to an eighth policy of their own specification 373 farmers responded during November 2018 Questionnaire As well as the seven prompted options we asked for verbatim responses to specify their own policies and also in response to the question If you had the chance to speak directly to Michael Gove, what would you say?
Methodology: Cluster Analysis Cluster analysis was used to analyse the data It is an exploratory data analysis technique which identifies discrete groups within a sample It was used in this project to gain a greater insight in understanding the spread of policies that farmers value, by illustrating the connection between different policy initiatives
