Back in 2000, then Assembly Agriculture Secretary, Christine Gwyther, came under fire for releasing a statement which noted that farming contributed almost nothing to the Welsh economy.At the same time, one Labour backbencher from a South Wales Valleys seat even suggested that the money going to agriculture would be better spent on alleviating poverty and inequality in Wales.
Fast forward to 2010, and it would seem that the Labour Party, at least in Westminster, has finally appreciated the importance of the agricultural sector to the nation.
Last week, Hilary Benn, the Environment Secretary, launched a campaign at the Oxford Farming Conference to boost Britain's self-sufficiency in food. The "Food 2030" strategy sees the government finally admitting that the UK's food production and distribution system, in which farmers play a vital role, affects everyone.
More relevantly, it has concluded that this system, which depends on imports and long distribution chains, is no longer sustainable and could put the overall security of the nation at threat.
After many years of being accused of being irrelevant to a modern economy, I am sure that farmers in Wales will be both perplexed and delighted at the focus being given by Labour politicians to supporting their industry.
Of course, the Welsh Assembly Government will point to the Tir Cynnal scheme, the £23 million spent on Farming Connect, and various food and processing grants as evidence that they have supported the industry in Wales during this time. Whilst such policy measures are all well and good, the real issue is whether they have had any effect on the industry.
Unfortunately, it is a story of declining fortunes that can be found if we examine the contribution of the sector to the Welsh economy for the decade 1997-2007.
Well, according to the official statistics we have examined:
- the economic contribution of agriculture has declined by 68.1 per cent during the period 1997-2007, the worst performance of any UK region. In contrast, agriculture across the UK declined by 7 per cent.
- in 1997, agriculture accounted for 2.2 per cent of the Welsh economy, a higher level than the 1.4 per cent for the UK economy. By 2007, this had declined to 0.5 per cent of the Welsh economy as compared to 0.8 per cent for the UK.
- the importance of Welsh agriculture has fallen relative to the rest of the UK and whilst Wales accounted for 6.3 per cent of the UK’s agricultural sector in 1997, this had dropped to 2.2 per cent a decade later.
- in 1997, Welsh agriculture was producing £634 million for the economy, but this had gone down to £202 million by 2007, a decline which accounts for over 60 per cent of the reduction in overall UK agricultural output during this period
- if the relative contribution of agriculture to the Welsh economy had been the same in 2007 as it had been in 1997, then the sector would have been generating an additional £770 million in output for the Welsh economy that year alone.
Of course, critics may point to events such as the foot and mouth disease as having an impact on the sector, but the actual statistics tell a completely different story.
The direct effect from the Foot and Mouth outbreak in 2001 to agricultural output was far less than expected and the main decline in Welsh agriculture during the last decade has actually happened during the period 2004-2007, when the sector lost over half its value.
Given the disastrous decline in the Welsh agricultural economy since 1997, farmers across Wales will welcome any boost from the political parties at Westminster to help revive their industry over the next decade. Thankfully, the signs are that agriculture is set to become a priority once more for politicians. At the same time that Hilary Benn was making his speech in Oxford, the shadow environment secretary Nick Herbert was calling for a "new age of agriculture" where farming was important in responding to a rising population and climate change.
For Wales, it is critical that we take full advantage of any political support for agriculture and the Welsh Assembly Government, along with the sector itself, must works closely with whichever party is in power in Westminster after the next election not only to stop the decline in Welsh farming but to give the industry every opportunity to grow and make a full contribution to the economy of Wales over the next decade.
Comments
A link would be nice!
If there are two "different stories" you owe it to us to say where your version comes from so we can see if you're being selective.
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/statbase/Product.asp?vlnk=14650
You need to look at the NUTS 1 GVA link and table 1.5.
The posting is based on these official statistics and they have been subsequently checked with the Office for National Statistics. You may have also seen the story in the Western Mail yesterday which was derived from these statistics (yes, I provided these) and were checked by the paper with the ONS beforehand.
Shame on you to doubt me :)
In 1997, agriculture generated £122 million for the local economy but by 2007, this had fallen to £36 million, a fall of 70 per cent. In addition, agriculture accounted for 10 per cent of the Powys economy back in 1997 but by 2007, this had fallen to 2.1 per cent.
This fall in agricultural output is reflected in the slower growth of the Powys economy during this time. Whilst Wales grew by 53 per cent over this period, Powys grew by 41 per cent.
Indeed, the GVA/head has fallen from 78.6 per cent of the UK average to 66.1 per cent, which would mean that the county should qualify for the highest level of European Structural Funds if only local politicians would bother raising this with the EU.