The decision to delay the rollout of Wales’ Sustainable Farming Scheme (SFS) is a “sensible and pragmatic’’ one according to farming leaders but “bad news for farmers, nature and climate’’ say wildlife campaigners.

Whatever your opinion on this important issue it is quite remarkable that after this many years here we are, moving forward at a snail’s pace.

Eight years have passed since Brexit and in that time the Welsh government has consulted on its successor scheme to direct farm payments four times.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the border, England started transitioning to its new scheme three years ago.

In fairness to Wales’ new rural affairs minister, he only stepped into the role in March and is doing what he can to make good his inheritance.

Indeed, Huw Irranca-Davies knows a thing or two about how agriculture works in England as he served as an MP for 15 years, and some of those as Defra secretary.

When challenged recently on how Wales’ progress on agricultural transition shaped up against the position in England he did admit that he was willing to look “north, south, east and west’’ to see what lessons could be learned, beyond the borders of the UK even to see how best things could be done in Wales.

He wants a solution that is bespoke to Wales, that “reflects the type of farming we have, the type of communities we have, the type of social value that we want to invest in.’’

The minister suggested that the schemes introduced to the east of Offa’s Dyke had not been universally welcomed but with a raft of options and decent payments, many would argue that farmers are mostly happy with what they have got.

In fact, so popular is the new Sustainable Farming Incentive that Defra had to put a cap on the amount of some environmental incentives farmers could claim in response to concerns about food security because there were so many applications.

If the minister really is open to learning the right lessons, as he has said he is, he wouldn’t go far wrong from putting politics to one side for now and cribbing parts of that scheme to shoehorn into the SFS.