Can revised scheme restore trust levels?

IT IS some 17 months since farmers downed their tools and picked up their placards instead, many driving their tractors to the Senedd to try to make their voices heard.

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They were angry, beyond angry, that the Welsh Government’s replacement for the Basic Payment Scheme would, they said, have been disastrous for the sector.

The final plan was published yesterday. The number of universal actions has been reduced, and the contentious plan for 10% of all land to have to be covered in trees has gone too.

But there are still tree targets - an expectation for farmers to plant the equivalent of 250 trees each by 2028 - and there is still a 10% habitat requirement.