Mark Drakeford: 'Puzzle' that farmers can't grow trees

Many people would find the idea farmers cannot grow trees a "puzzle", Mark Drakeford has said.

The first minister has defended plans to tie farm subsidies to tree planting after senior figures in a farming union promised a boycott.

NFU Cymru said the proposals "did not make business sense".

But Mr Drakeford said tree planting was an "inescapable" part of tackling climate change.

The Sustainable Farming Scheme (SFS) is set to take effect in 2025, replacing EU-era payments that had been worth over £300m a year to Welsh farms.

Among other things, the new scheme aims to reward farmers for actions that help soak up carbon emissions, provide habitats for wildlife and enhance water quality.

To qualify, farms will have to sign up to a checklist of universal actions - including ensuring 10% of their land is planted with trees and a further 10% managed as wildlife habitat.

"I think it will be a puzzle to many people, the idea that farmers can't grow trees," Mr Drakeford told BBC Wales.

"There will people around Wales scratching their heads at that proposition".

He said people in Wales were "willing to go on investing in the future of farming".

"But they also expect that farmers will produce those public goods that the public is willing to pay for," he added.

Mr Drakeford said that the 10% figure "will vary from farm to farm".

"It's a broad brush figure for what we need across the whole of Wales," he added.

"Many, many farms have 10% and more already in tree cover."

But he said it was recognised "that not every land in every part of Wales will be suitable".

A body that represents the forestry sector expressed sympathy for farmers.

Anthony Geddes, National Manager for Confor, said: "Obviously planting trees is a very positive thing.

"However the 10% figure that's been stipulated by the Welsh government in the SFS is quite a blunt instrument and without a necessarily large amount of evidence to help farmers and the farming unions understand what that means.

"We are in a climate change emergency and maintaining the status quo - simply from a farming and an animal welfare point of view isn't healthy.

"But the way it's being enforced, I believe that we can be more intelligent about supporting farmers.

"But that requires communication and at the moment certainly, the 10% is turning tree planting into a toxic debate between the farmers and the Welsh government."

Welsh Conservative Shadow Minister for Rural Affairs, Samuel Kurtz, said it was "abundantly clear" that the Welsh government "continues to ignore the views of Wales' farming unions".

"There is a real risk that the Labour government's 10% tree planting target could turn away farmers in achieving the wider aims of the Sustainable Farming Scheme," Mr Kurtz said.

Plaid Cymru's farming spokesman, Llyr Gruffydd, called for the government to to "reconsider this arbitrary 10% tree planting target".

"It has now become clear that the requirement would be unworkable for many tenant farmers and setting so much productive land aside for tree planting will add pressure to the many farm businesses who exist on a very tight margin," he said.