We at Gwlad recognise the importance of agriculture to the Welsh economy and national life

Welsh farmers manage 80% of the land area of Wales; agriculture directly employs 50,400 are employed on farms with gross output of £2.1bn. The food foundation sector turnover is £8.1bn employing 233,500

43% of workers in agriculture, forestry and fisheries speak Welsh compared to 19% in other sectors

We hold that the primary purpose of Welsh agriculture is the production of food, to the highest environmental and welfare standards. We see no reason why Wales should not have a thriving rural economy providing high-value opportunities for those who live and work in it

We oppose the wholesale planting of vast tracts of trees taking out complete farms and mountains, but we support planting of native trees for environmental benefit, shelter belts, nature corridors, the stabilisation of old coal and slag tips, and flooding control

The forests that exist need to be properly managed, with regular removal of brushwood and appropriate firebreaks. We shall relax excessive environmental regulations, such as the Wales-wide NVZ 

We shall do all we can to defend Welsh farmers against the depredations of the Westminster government, working with the farmers’ unions to help farmers legally avoid IHT

We shall encourage investment into Welsh farms to make land more productive without compromising environmental standards: for example by providing infrastructure to support the use of tracking technology to locate wild animals such as foxes and badgers and so keep livestock safely away from them without having to resort to large -scale culling

Likewise there should be finer-grained testing for the presence of bovine TB, keeping slaughter of infected animals only as a last resort and even then to the minimum possible extent

We shall jealously guard the reputation of Welsh agricultural produce and insist on ‘Brand Cymru’ being used consistently for Welsh products, giving traceability

We will encourage those producing food in Wales to ensure that it also be processed in Wales, adding as much value as possible as close to the source as possible

To this end we shall create a single Welsh ministry of agriculture, fisheries and food responsible for the whole process ‘from gate to plate’

We welcome the establishment of Wales’s first school of veterinary medicine in Aberystwyth, but would like to see its offering expanded to provide full five -year courses rather than just the first two years (with the rest of the course currently taught at the Royal Veterinary College’s Hawkshead campus in Hertfordshire)

Additionally, we shall promote the role of colleges and lifelong learning to support young entrants and older change-of-direction newcomers, teaching both traditional methods and innovative practices including use of IT and advanced environmental sensing technologies

We shall actively promote the share farming scheme, allowing opportunity for new entrants without the capital to buy and helping to reduce the average age of active farmers

We shall ensure that agricultural land remains exempt from the Land Tax provisions that we intend to introduce for commercial and residential property, as discussed in the ‘Property Tax Reform’ section of this manifesto

Picture by Rebecca Ritchie on @unsplash