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| William Emmett |
By Debbie Waite
AFTER decades of decline, farming is showing
growth, according to the National Farming Union’s (NFU) man on the ground in
Oxfordshire.
New government figures show the agriculture
and horticulture sector of the economy grew by 25 per cent last year.
Farming now represents the UK’s fourth
largest exporting sector, contributing £85bn to the UK economy and employing
3.5 million people.
William Emmett, 61, the regional chairman of
the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) says the future is looking brighter in
Oxfordshire.
Mr Emmett, who owns four farms in South
Oxfordshire, said: “As a fourth generation farmer who has seen decades of
decline due to rising prices and disease, I am immensely happy to say that
farmers are now cautiously enjoying some measure of prosperity after many hard
years.”
He continued: “Most people know that
farming’s reputation was badly damaged by BSE and Foot-and-Mouth disease, but
the biggest blight has been the steady decline in the margins farmers can make.
“In the last 30 years here in Oxfordshire we
have seen potato farming basically disappear, along with most of our pig
industry and many of our dairy herds.
“While farmers once were able to make a
living from a few hundred acres, the prices they have been offered for their
meat and milk have reduced so far that we have seen countless family businesses
fold.”
But he said: “Farmers have looked at what
people want and diversified – whether that be through opening their farms up to
the public, by producing green energy, by offering holiday accommodation, or
opening farm shops etc. We know people want good, locally-grown food and we
provide that.”
But he added: “There are still many pressures
on farmers. Only two weeks ago, one major supermarket suddenly decided it would
be paying two pence less a litre for their milk from that point – and all the
other supermarkets quickly followed.
“Farmers also use a lot of oil-derived
fertilisers, which are always rising in cost.
“But we are hopeful we can weather the
future.”
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