Struggling farmers have called on Michael Gove to honour his promise of assistance after the summer drought.
The first half of this year’s summer was the driest in the UK since 1961, with harvests suffering as a consequence of the hot weather.
The environment secretary promised to help farmers after he met members of the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) in August. However, Minette Batters, the NFU president, said there had been little government action since then.
Batters said Scotland, Wales and other countries in Europe had implemented measures to support farmers, but in England “the situation is very different”.
She said: “We admired the secretary of state’s words of reassurance when he attended the NFU’s agricultural drought summit last month, but we are yet to see meaningful assistance to farmers who have to deal with the long-term impacts of the extreme weather.
“We know the secretary of state values British food production, but – despite the recent turn in the weather – we still need to see action. A bit of rain does not wash the problems away.”
The NFU has called for flexibility on rules that prevent many farmers from grazing or cutting grass from certain areas of land.
“Without these derogations, farmers face huge uncertainty over whether feed stocks will last the forthcoming winter and what increasing costs they will be facing if they don’t,” said Batters.
The NFU has also called for water abstraction licensing to be relaxed, support for additional forage and bedding costs, as well as improved cash flow.
A spokeswoman for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: “We are seeking a far more useful relaxation of EU laws for our farmers than other member states have sought.
“Allowing catch or cover crop grazing would, we expect, have limited benefit for our farmers, given the limited crop types that can be grown under current rules in the areas concerned.
“We expect further news next week on our negotiations with the European commission to secure a much more beneficial flexibility to increase the availability of fodder resources for livestock.”
