Organic pledge is being broken claim farmers

1:30pm Saturday 19th July 2008

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The Welsh Assembly is being urged to back down after telling many farmers their submissions for organic conversion are ineligible.

Farmers like Ceredigion livestock producer Dai Evans say an administrative hiccup is preventing them from being considered for the Organic Farm Scheme.

The Assembly is claiming that farmers had to complete a separate application in addition to registering their interest in the scheme on the Single Application Form (SAF) for 2008.

Mr Evans, who runs a 300-acre sheep and beef farm at Silan, accuses the Assembly of barring applications to save money.

“It seems that too many farmers have applied to join so the Assembly is looking at the fine print to see if they can find a way of barring some applications,” he said.

“We employed an ADAS consultant to fill in our IACS form. Neither the consultant nor our Quality Welsh Foods inspector were aware of this additional form.”

Mr Evans says he has already planned for conversion by laying-off staff and selling 50 cattle.

“We haven’t bought any fertiliser either and, if we have to buy it now, it’s going to cost us £500 a tonne instead of the £300 we would have paid had we bought it earlier.”

Assembly policy aims to have 10% of all farms in Wales organic, but Mr Evans is accusing it of reneging on that pledge.

Mary James, head of policy at NFU Cymru, says the Assembly should take the interest expressed on the 2008 SPF form as the formal application for the Organic Farm Scheme.

“These members who registered on the SAF, have completed or are in the process of completing the land schedules which are due in by July 31st, and some have been involved in significant expenditure to prepare for conversion,” she said.