The first UK-wide, comprehensive review of farm assurance has called for a fundamental reset of the system to rebuild confidence amongst farmers.
The review, established by the UK farming unions and the Agriculture & Horticulture Development
Board (AHDB), was conducted independently by four Commissioners. It concludes that farm assurance is critical to the industry’s future, is delivering necessary assurances on quality to consumers but must make some fundamental changes to address growing frustration amongst farmers in how it is delivered.
The nine month review collected evidence from every link in the UK food supply chain. The dissatisfaction expressed by farmers was not uniform across all sectors nor across all nations, notably with assurance schemes in devolved areas working more effectively than UK-wide schemes.
The review makes nine strategic recommendations:
1. On-farm audits must be reduced, simplified and delivered more consistently;
2. There must be a transformational step forward in embracing technology;
3. Schemes need to reset and/or restate their structures to establish farmers as the driving voice in standards development;
4. A new industry-led initiative must set out the future environmental ambitions for farm assurance;
5. The inclusion of regulatory requirements within farm assurance should be conditional on government agreeing a form of ‘earned recognition’;
6. There must be greater collaboration between farm assurance schemes across the UK;
7. Schemes must better position the UK farming industry in world food markets and in competition with imported food;
8. All schemes must review and improve their communication with farmers
9. The Red Tractor scheme must complete the implementation of recommendations in the Campbell Tickell report on its governance.
Under these nine strategic recommendations, a total of 56 operational recommendations have also been made.
The Commissioners also call on governments across the UK to take a more structured and active approach to the interaction between assurance schemes and regulation, recognising the benefits this will bring to the farming industry, as well as to consumers, and the potential it will have to contribute to the better understanding of the impact of post-Brexit farming policies.
Commenting on the report, Lead Commissioner, Dr David Llewellyn, said: “The is the first fundamental look at UK farm assurance since it was established in the 1990s. So much has changed over the last 30 years and we know that further change is on the horizon for the farming industry. Farm assurance must be a critical part of that future. However, for that to happen, significant changes are needed to win back farmer confidence where it has been lost, to build on what already works well and to secure a competitive edge for UK farming on the world stage.
“We have undertaken considerable research and taken account of a wealth of evidence from every part of the UK food and farming supply chain. We found competing interests and ambitions for the farm assurance system. Over time, that has added complexity and stress for farmers, many of whom now struggle to identify any real benefits to their business. Worse still, many feel they live in a permanent state of jeopardy with ‘make or break’ audits determining whether their businesses can operate or not. The reality is that too many farmers feel farm assurance is ‘done to them’ rather than ‘delivered with them’. It should be better than this.
“The farmers we consulted want to produce to the highest standards and to be supported by assurance schemes in that endeavour. However, they also want to be appropriately compensated for the considerable effort required by the current farm assurance system.
“We recognise that the system is essential to provide assurance of high production standards. However, it must deliver for all parts of the food chain, including contributing to a process of continuous farming improvement, = something the approach of the current assurance system does not always provide.
“Farm assurance has also evolved differently in different parts of the UK. Whilst there are improvements required for all assurance schemes, we believe there are lessons to be learned from devolved nations where schemes work better together and where they seem to have a more constructive relationship with farmers.
“Many of our recommendations will be challenging. They are about changes to organisational cultures and expectations, as much as they are about processes. But we view them as integral to building a farm assurance system that is trusted, successful and underpins a profitable future for UK farming.”