This year’s National Farmers’ Union conference in Birmingham was attended by a delegation from the Manx NFU, invited by the NFU Northwest Office.

Manx NFU secretary Sarah Comish has sent us this report.

The conference is an important event to inform the industry and provides the Isle of Man with an insight as to how we compare to UK agricultural industry, identifying trends, directions and what we need to be working on now to prevent falling behind our neighbouring jurisdictions.

The president’s opening statement certainly emphasised the need for the Isle of Man to invest properly in its own food security, and not to rely on the UK for a food supply.

Concerns for the UK agricultural industry reflect the issues we are confronted with in the Isle of Man – but with the added cost of crossing the Irish Sea.

Topics paramount were workforce shortages, climate change challenges, and of course, business resilience and the consequential impacts on food security.

With the launch of the Sustainable Farming Incentives, the Isle of Man may have been ahead with the Agri-Environment Scheme, though more work needs to be done to see if our Manx farmers are as well supported as our United Kingdom counterparts.

Stacking options (which allows payments to be made for different ecosystem services on the same parcel of land) should be seriously considered here to maximise benefits and realise potentials for both farm business and biodiversity ambitions.

Benchmarking is essential to allow us to assess the progress of the industry.

To meet government targets for emissions reductions, the industry needs an urgent commitment for carbon audits, to recognise our ability to sequester carbon as well as reduce emissions.

Good governance requires good data and reporting.

Data is vital for providing the proof points we need for successful marketing and the strategy aims of the government.

For this to be effective the Isle of Man Government and the industry need to begin work together, to achieve these targets.

One of the biggest focus points for the Manx NFU at the conference was the progress other jurisdictions are making in carbon auditing and soil testing.

Soil health, incorporating organic matter, has been an area the Manx NFU has been lobbying for support, and its importance was highlighted at the Birmingham event.

Strategies taken by both Northern Ireland and Scotland provide farms with the ability to target inputs more efficiently, but also contribute to carbon data baselines, something that is not yet being done on island.

We need to baseline our sequestration and emission data jointly, to avoid misrepresentation of the industry in future reports.

With the land-based Basic Payment Scheme being removed from England’s agricultural support systems by 2024, replaced by de-linked payments through new schemes, it will be interesting to see how this affects the UK’s home grown food system.

Much has been discussed around food security. At the vonference, the Secretary of State for Agriculture, Therese Coffey, blamed the lack of produce in supermarkets on bad weather in Spain, but this comment was condemned by the NFU president Minette Batters and team.

In a Guardian report last year, the UK Government’s own advisor on food security, Henry Dimbleby, warned of issues on the horizon, echoing NFU concerns again more recently.

European countries are not experiencing the same supply issues as the UK, as they do not operate within the same food chain culture controlled by UK supermarkets.

He expressed frustration that the political and public focus was centred on jokes about turnips rather than on structural issues with the food system.

Some of the most valuable take-aways were the presentations from Arla and CBI, giving a vital business perspective on the industry, and clarity on carbon auditing challenges, and the final session of NFU conference, when NFU vice president David Exwood introduced five farmers from different backgrounds and sectors, who described their own journeys towards climate-friendly farming.

Full details and topics can be found on the NFU UK website: https://www.nfuonline.com/hot-topics/nfu-conference/