Dallat: ‘Farming industry is sustaining our small rural communities’

Mr Dallat said: The farming industry is sustaining many of our small towns and villages. When other people are at work, it is the farmers who are packing into the cattle mart and spending their money in cafes, shops and hardware stores, and giving badly needed work to the rest of the rural community."

He also highlighted the importance of the bill of rural communities in Northern Ireland their spending power.

Mr Dallat said: “The farming industry is sustaining many of our small towns and villages. When other people are at work, it is the farmers who are packing into the cattle mart and spending their money in cafes, shops and hardware stores, and giving badly needed work to the rest of the rural community.

“What is going to happen if these payments are withdrawn some time in the future? I worry about that, because there has been an erosion of our rural communities already, and we should be doing everything possible to sustain the agriculture industry, which is the heart of that community.”

Mr Dallat also raised concerns about the UK being flooded by cheap farm products.

He said: “I am sure it has not gone unnoticed that some Members of the Westminster Parliament have been advocating the import of ‘cheap’ food from Argentina and Brazil - and I have the word ‘cheap’ in inverted commas.

“While the products might look all right, they are the result of deforestation; they are the result of animals being put onto land that is deficient in nutrients.

“All of us worry about our personal health, and that is an issue that impacts on not only those who own farms but the wider community.”