Gwyn Jones Farm Diary: Proper rain at last!

Proper rain at last in West Sussex and more to come. The drought seems to have broken, and we look forward to the cracks in the clay at Plaistow healing, and the parched pastures on the sand at Tillington greening up again. It is far too early to speculate on how much rain we are going to get in the coming weeks, or whether Ardingly reservoir will start to fill up. We need a great deal of rain between now and the end of the year to replenish boreholes, as it’s a bit late after that for the water to find its way to the depths of underground lakes.

There are plenty of dire predictions in the media following the dry summer and some are real, others a bit farfetched. Farmers have certainly been making very difficult decisions on planting, with real concerns over profitability and the chance of another dry summer. Growing potatoes, onions, cabbages and carrots next year are bigger and more difficult decisions than planting cereals this autumn, as they need irrigation and are the most water hungry. Growing vegetables can be more profitable than some other crops, but they need water.

The NFU commented that there are real concerns in Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Yorkshire and the east midlands where much of our vegetables are grown. Many of these areas were also still very dry last week. Agriculture is now far more dependant on irrigation in this country than it was back in 1976, 50 years ago when we had the last really dry summer.

Supermarkets have important decisions to make too. Will they buy the smaller veg produced without as much water? They should if they are responsible and as caring as they claim. They could also cut down on the waste they create with their exacting standards. No one will care about shape and size when they are hungry! Apple growers are doing what they can to adapt to a warmer climate, growing more heat-resistant varieties.

Adrian Scripps whose father used to farm at Billingshurst as well as in Kent, has 500 acres of orchards these days in Kent and expects that his crop will be 15% lighter due to the dry summer. He became the first grower to plant Pink Lady apple trees, first bred in western Australia, and now makes up a quarter of his production. For smaller growers without irrigation, the effect of the hot weather has been much worse.

Prime Minister Andrew Burnham’s reindustrialisation strategy is being challenged by the food manufacturers, calling for some help for food producers. As usual, Whitehall has overlooked not only the largest manufacturing sector in the country, but a low margin, hyper competitive sector. Reindustrialising this country cannot succeed without support for a sector that employs 400,000 people, operates in all parts of the country and has the capacity to grow.

Many food businesses are heavy users of energy, gas and electricity, the high costs of which are now crippling businesses. The usual planning difficulties are making life worse and then thoughtless international trade deals which are both unfair and threaten food security. The food sector was not included in Keir Starmer’s industrial strategy, it was not named as one of the government’s eight priority sectors.

Many are arguing that food producers should be given equal access to the National Wealth Fund, the British Business Bank’s £4 billion growth fund, and Innovate UK, the government’s innovation agency. Energy intensive sectors such as baking, milling, sugar and dairy should be eligible for electricity cost relief and extra support for heavy gas users switching to electricity.

The Food and Drink Federation fully back these measures, stating that the sector is held back by high energy costs, the impacts of extreme weather and regulation; much of it poorly conceived and poorly executed. It is constraining growth and driving investment overseas, undermining the sector’s future which will of course have an impact on farming. We are a part of the food sector and produce the raw ingredients, a hugely important part of our food security as a nation.

A government spokesperson then trots out the same old rubbish. We have lowered the duty on red diesel by 80%, which is true, but duty on red diesel was very low and worth £300 million which is nevertheless helpful. Then they claim that they are already backing the food and drink sector with a record £11.8 billion for sustainable farming and food production in this parliament. Ask any farmer if his or her money has been drastically cut in England since Brexit and they will confirm this to be the case.

Ask them if the environmental schemes cost money to implement and they will also confirm that there is little margin in those payments for public good. However, as the only game in town, environmental payments are now very popular, and we all witnessed the fiasco last month when the Sustainable Farm Incentive (SFI) money ran out in 6 hours, leaving most farmers with nothing. Defra has now admitted (under freedom of information rules) that they and Ministers knew that this would happen.

Paul Kissak, permanent secretary at Defra claimed that they were taken aback, as farmers had shown little interest in the SFI scheme a few years ago, but this time demand quickly exceeded the money available. The NFU had warned this would happen, and having changed the scheme more recently to improve it for farmers, coupled with the fact that the single farm payment is now gone, anyone in touch with the industry would have known better.

The truth is that Defra and the government’s focus is on the environment to the detriment of food production and food security. Scotland and Wales continue to support their farmers and food production, whereas in England the government and its many arm’s length bodies have no interest in commercial farming and are only interested in converting as much farming land to environmental projects as is possible, continuing the policies of the last government.

They are never ahead of the game, which means there will be a crisis happens before they act. Wes Streeting is now telling everyone to have some tins of food in the cupboard! Well, if we carry on like this, we will need more than that as investment has now stopped on many farms and thousands of farmers are heading for part-time farming.

This is what happens when you continue with a cheap food policy, but don’t underpin it. Consumers will see higher prices than today as the cost of imports goes up and availability more uncertain. Cattle and sheep numbers are in decline and will continue declining, processors and retailers are very worried as they are much closer to agriculture than government despite their rural MPs.

Aldi is starting a scheme for beef producers, where tiered farm payments will be made quarterly in arrears, providing a consistent and predictable income stream (they say) linked to their beef farmer’s normal sales income. Will this be the start of a new way of doing business? Will the government have transferred the cost of supporting farmers to retail?

If so, the consumer will pay. This will be the end of a cheap food policy (gone from England already) and you will pay more at the till rather than taxpayers money supporting food production. Taxes will remain high as you will be supporting the environment (public goods) and no doubt you will let the government know how you feel about this in due course.