Committee to discuss draft farm welfare bill at Assembly

AERA Committee member Patsy McGlone MLA, pictured, commented: “The plan is to have the Bill lifted by the Committee and put forward to the Assembly. I fully support the principle of farmers getting a fair price for their produce.

“Too many farming families are reliant on welfare payments at the moment because they are not getting the farmgate returns they need.

“The bill envisages the compilation of a Fair Farm Gate Prices Index. This will specify the lowest price to be paid for best-quality produce, across the entire gamut of agricultural commodities produced in Northern Ireland.

“The index will also specify a lowest price to be paid for produce of the lowest quality consistent with acceptability to the general wholesale market and compliance with legislation regulating produce for human consumption.

“The bill references the appointment of a Fair Farm Gate Pricing Panel, whose members will oversee the compilation and maintenance of the aforementioned Index. Finally, it will be an offence – under the terms of the draft – for a relevant person to buy listed produce from a farming business for a purchase price below the listed price.”

Commenting on the draft legislation, NI Farm Groups’ William Taylor said: “The Farm Welfare Bill Northern Ireland is designed to prevent damage to the welfare of farming families by making provision about the prices of farm produce, this has now gone before the Agriculture Committee at Stormont, whereby the Committee has requested representatives from NI Farm Groups to give evidence to the Committee on 4th February 2021 to make the case that this Bill needs to be put into legislation as soon as possible.

“This bill has been developing since 2013 and was virtually ready to go when Stormont fell in 2016. When Stormont reconvened in 2020 again the Bill was ready to go and then COVID-19 struck. However, all these events have allowed the Bill to be honed to suit whatever the world can throw at farming families and never more so than now.”

He added: “Back in 2010 the Commission for Rural Communities confirmed that a quarter of UK family farmers were living below the poverty line. The Commission was abolished in 2013. But considering other downward agricultural trends in farm employment and income this number is likely to be much worse today.”

Taylor explained that the Farm Welfare Bill is not anti-competitive in either a European and Westminster context.

In addition, its enacting may well create 10,000 to 20,000 new jobs across Northern Ireland in a very short space of time.