TUV meets UFU
Posted on 31/03/11 and tagged under Agriculture & Environment
TUV MEETS UFU
A five man delegation of TUV Assembly candidates met this week for detailed discussions with the UFU leadership. The politicians meeting UFU President John Thompson and Chief Executive Clarke Black were TUV Leader and former MEP, Jim Allister, Boyd Douglas (East Londonderry), Barrie Halliday (Newry & Armagh), Mel Lucas (South Antrim) and Lyle Rea (Lagan Valley).
Having reviewed the current state and future prospects of each sector, the meeting focused on CAP Reform, the future of LFA, DARD’s budget, animal health and the role of a Retail Adjudicator.
Commenting Boyd Douglas, himself a dairy farmer, said, “This was a useful meeting with a good exchange of ideas. Few sectors in farming are finding things easy and most are struggling under the burden of rising feed and compound prices. Whereas, many of these influences are international, we need to make each sector as robust as possible. Too often we’re fighting a rearguard action after crisis has hit, instead of forward planning to build protection against such episodes.
“A Retail Adjudicator could help tackle the key issue of unfair treatment of the producer in the sales chain, but to be effective the Adjudicator must have independent investigative powers. This will be the key component which we’ll be looking for when Westminster publishes its proposals.”
Mel Lucas said, “One of the issues I was interested to pursue was the possibility of moving the department’s veterinary empire across to the private sector. With 550 veterinary staff I suspect DARD is not an efficient provider, though any privatisation must not be used as an excuse to sting the farmer with higher charges. Let’s never forget there is a huge public interest and benefit in improving animal health, so governmental support is both appropriate and necessary.”
Coming from Armagh, Barrie Halliday, was particularly interested in the discussion on the failure by DARD to pro-actively address the badger problem in the spread of TB. “We’ve had this subject talked round for years and whereas in the rest of the UK government is moving forward to address the badger issue, here, where the problem is at its worst, the Minister has been dragging her feet.”
Summing up the meeting Lyle Rea said, “This was a most useful 90 minutes. I am grateful to UFU for the opportunity to discuss the wide range of topics covered. The agri-food industry is central to our economy and in recession has shown itself one of the most dependable. Thus, when we help farming we help NI PLC, and that should be the goal of us all.”
