Preseli farmers had the opportunity to quiz prospective National Assembly candidates at last night’s Preseli Pembrokeshire NFU Cymru hustings event, held at Wolfcastle Country Hotel.

During the evening, farmers raised many issues including; cutting unnecessary bureaucracy and red tape; the importance of Welsh Government making evidence based policy decisions; the damaging impacts of potential Nitrate Vulnerable Zones on farm businesses; the debate on our future membership of the European Union and the impacts of bovine TB on the local farming community.

Prospective candidates who attended the event included Paul Davies, Welsh Conservatives; Dan Lodge, Welsh Labour; Frances Bryant, Wales Green Party; John Osmond, Plaid Cymru; Howard Lillyman, UKIP and Bob Kilmister, Welsh Liberal Democrats. Each of them in turn outlined their parties’ future plans for agriculture and rural communities in Pembrokeshire and beyond.

Pembrokeshire NFU Cymru County Vice-Chairman, Jeff Evans, chaired the meeting and said: “We’ve had devolution in Wales for nearly 20 years now with a number of areas, including agriculture, being devolved to the National Assembly for Wales. The elected Assembly Member for the Preseli Pembrokeshire constituency has an important role to play in representing the interests of local farmers and rural businesses on a number of crucial issues.”

During the debate NFU Cymru members emphasised to the candidates the need for a holistic approach to eradicating bovine TB, which includes actively removing the disease from the wildlife population in areas where the disease is endemic, such as areas of Preseli Pembrokeshire. Mr Evans added, “Bovine TB presents the biggest threat to the future sustainability of the dairy and beef industry in this area and farmers are playing their part in tackling the disease through stringent cattle based measures. However, with the badger vaccination project in the north Pembrokeshire Intensive Action Area having now been suspended by Welsh Government due to a global shortage of BCG vaccine, we look to the elected AM for Preseli Pembrokeshire to commit to supporting a comprehensive eradication programme that will actively remove the disease from the wildlife population in this area.”

Mr. Evans concluded: “The volatility that we’re currently seeing across many agricultural commodity markets creates significant challenges to our businesses. It is absolutely vital that any prospective AM for the area realises that decisions made in Cardiff Bay on issues such as implementing the Basic Payment Scheme and the Rural Development Programme in Wales have a huge impact on rural businesses and residents in this area. We need the next Welsh Government to support agricultural production in a way that will help create the environment and conditions for a productive, profitable and progressive Welsh agricultural industry. It will now be important for whichever party that’s elected to turn these words into action and NFU Cymru will continue to lobby hard on these issues.”

NFU Cymru’s full National Assembly Elections manifesto is available at nfu-cymru.org.uk