THE destiny of farming is "under our control" but farmers have to "work together" according to the president of the National Farmers' Union, Sir Ben Gill speaking in Worcester yesterday.
He said it was a "myth" Britain always received the raw end of the deal from European regulations and Britain needed to take what it was due from the communal pot.
However, he believed farming had historically been starved of adequate funding in this country and there was a lack of understanding of the rural economy by the Government, typified by the proposed ban on fox hunting, which is "wrong".
Sir Ben was in Worcester to address the Worcestershire NFU annual meeting, at the Young Farmers' Centre, in Hawford. It was his last county meeting in the West Midlands before standing down to allow a new president to take the reins, at the NFU annual meeting, in February.
He said it was testament to the rural community's determination it had rebounded so well from the triple blight of foot-and-mouth, BSE and floods.
"Flooding has been a real problem in Worcestershire with severe costs involved - for many of course they've not made it back," he said, adding the farming community needed to rebound still further economically.
"We've come back up to £3bn but, just to stand still, the farming industry needs to show a net margin of £3.5bn, and we need a minimum of £4bn to invest and to grow the industry.
"We need a change to the competition authorities who make it difficult for farmers to develop economies of scale, which we need to do if we are going to be globally competitive."
He said lack of European funding was "down to Britain's approach to Europe".
"Historically we've suffered from lack of regional development funds - we should have about 10 per cent but we only have 3.5 per cent - because we never drew it down and now it's difficult to get it back up again. Ireland and France have five times as much as Britain.
"But it's a myth we always come off worst with regulations. Sometimes we do - we tend to over-regulate - but there are some areas in Northern Europe that go further than we do."
He said the British Government was "not joined up at all" and the British farming industry had been "starved" of adequate funding.
"There are so many different sources of funding - it's all uncoordinated and needs to be brought together.
"That's why the Worcestershire Rural Hub was started - it's specifically aimed at getting Government money and bringing all the services together.
"But we still have a long way to go."
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