The road ahead (From Gazette & Herald)

The road ahead

Sara Schultz, countryside officer with the Countryside Agency, writes about the future of farming in Ryedale...

"The farming and food industries are vitally important to our country. Farmers are responsible for looking after some 70pc of our land and farming has major impacts (both positive and negative) on our environment. Farm landscapes underpin tourism and other rural activity. Directly or indirectly, these industries touch every one of us in our daily lives."

THIS is a quote taken from the recent Government policy consultation document "Sustainable Food and Farming - Working Together" which is a result of the report produced by the Policy Commission on the Future of Farming and Food.

Disastrous effects of BSE, foot and mouth and general difficulties which farming and other rural businesses have faced have caused them to think again about what they do. The devastation of foot and mouth has given the industry the chance to win back the public's confidence and to adapt to the changing circumstances in which it will have to function.

Farming is the principal land use in Ryedale and has made a vital contribution to the economic, social and environmental health of the area. Expectations in this area are great and are increasing with every disaster to hit farming. The public expect land managers to deliver good quality, safe and reasonably-priced food without compromising animal welfare. They look for all of that to come from an attractive and accessible countryside with diverse wildlife which can deliver economic benefits for other businesses, especially tourism. They want land managers to play a responsible role in reducing flooding risk... and much more.

Land managers and farmers cannot deliver against those expectations without radical reforms of policy. The issues which Ryedale farmers face are many; yet rural recovery is well underway and the commitment and resilience of the people in the farming industry in Ryedale is commendable. Ryedale farmers and land managers are already taking bold steps towards change and the Countryside Agency and other Government departments are helping to facilitate this.

The Countryside Agency is working with farmers through a number of grant-funded schemes in and around Ryedale which demonstrate support to good land management practice. An example is the Howardian Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) project, where agriculture and forestry are vital to its diverse landscape value. The AONB team helps farmers by providing specialist advice on farm conservation and woodland management.

Many farmers have accessed Countryside Stewardship grant funds through the AONB team, who provide detailed advice on the options and can also assist farmers by completing the detailed applications. Other farm-gate advice and support is given and smaller projects can be funded by the AONB's one-off capital grant scheme. There are new projects being developed jointly with the North Yorks Moors National Park and the AONB team with the DAPA project (Diversifying the Assets of Protected Areas). This is a new pilot diversification project based on the special qualities of the North Yorks Moors National Park and the Howardian Hills AONB.

While not in the Ryedale district, there is a neighbouring project in the upper Esk Valley known locally as the Farm and Rural Community Scheme (F&RCS). This is one of the Countryside Agency's suite of experimental "Land Management Initiatives" and is testing the way current rural support mechanisms can be strengthened to deliver social, economic and environmental objectives in the English uplands.

Ryedale has its own local food directory which promotes locally-sourced food, farmers markets and local businesses. By making this directory widely available, it can influence the public's purchasing decisions which will in turn have an important impact for local farmers and producers. Developing stronger markets for local products will help to improve the environmental quality and diversity of the countryside, and provide healthy landscapes for the future. The Countryside Agency's Yorkshire and The Humber regional office has developed a strategy to take this area of work forward, an investment which will pay healthy local dividends for Ryedale.

With positive change, the farming and food industry should have a profitable and sustainable future as a valuable contributor to the economy, to health and to the countryside. This may seem like an impossible vision for some, but a robust and sustainable framework will present opportunities for farmers willing to seize them and the Government has pledged to help them through this change. Farmers will be rewarded through payments from the public purse but in future this will be for public benefits, they will be rewarded for looking after their land and providing attractive countryside and farming will need to be fully integrated into the wider rural economy.

Updated: 10:17 Thursday, June 06, 2002