There are now just four days for farmers to respond to an important survey on the UK’s farm assurance schemes to help develop meaningful recommendations for change.
The Farm Assurance Review was jointly set in motion by the NFU and AHDB, along with NFU Cymru, the Ulster Farmers’ Union and NFU Scotland, in the wake of the furore over Red Tractor’s plans to introduce a Greener Farms Commitment.
The independent review will focus on repurposing UK farm assurance for a post-Brexit world. It will include an assessment of best practice and how assurance can provide value to primary producers and provide an evaluation of the relationship between assurance and regulation. It plans to report at the end of this year.
An online survey that can be completed by any farmer in the UK to provide evidence and assist in developing recommendations is open until Saturday, August 31.
- The survey can be found here
Lead Commissioner, Dr David Llewellyn, former Vice Chancellor of Harper Adams University, said: “The survey has been open since July. It has been widely publicised and we have had a strong response to date, from farmers from all sectors and all parts of the UK.
“The survey will be open until August 31. This provides the last opportunity to complete the survey. We encourage all farmers who have not yet done so, to participate so that we can hear your views and you can help provide evidence for the review that will assist in the development of its recommendations.”
The evidence gathering also involves direct engagement by the Commissioners with stakeholders across the supply chain in meetings at shows and events over the summer.
NPA chief executive Lizzie Wilson said: “The NPA will be engaging directly in this review. We also urge members to engage with this survey to feed your views in directly.”