Last week, the Welsh Government unveiled its revised Sustainable Farming Scheme, and while it’s an improvement on the last disastrous version, farmers across Monmouthshire and indeed Wales will be far from reassured.

Let’s not forget, the original proposals caused uproar, leading to thousands of farmers taking to the Senedd in protest, and many more across Wales showing their displeasure. It was a scheme written with little understanding of the realities of farming, full of impractical expectations and lacking any sense of partnership.

I welcome the fact that the Deputy First Minister revisited the scheme and I’m grateful to the farming unions and other stakeholders who fought to make it better. I appreciate the fact that this is simpler in some ways, less rigid in others, and with a few optional layers that offer choice rather than command.

While some of the sharpest edges have been taken off, the scheme is still not the answer many hoped for. Farmers won’t see it as the remedy the Welsh Government claims it to be. It still leans too heavily toward bureaucracy and away from food production – the very reason our farmers get up each morning.

The truth is, the balance is wrong. Food security should be a public good, yet it plays second fiddle to ideologically motivated environmental goals. Welsh farmers are already world leaders in food quality, traceability, and animal welfare – they don’t need lectures, they need backing.

Even now, the framework of ‘Universal Actions’ remains onerous, and for many smaller or older farmers, it may simply be a step too far. I fear many will walk away from the scheme, stay on the Basic Payment Scheme until it ends – or worse, exit farming altogether.

Worse still is the government’s U-turn on tapering BPS support. Slashing payments by 40% next year instead of the promised 20% is a hammer blow for those not ready to join the SFS. Farmers shouldn’t be punished for the government’s earlier failures.

There are still too many unanswered questions – especially around funding and impact on communities. We’ve not yet seen the promised impact assessment which leads me to question how can anyone confidently sign up without knowing the full implications?

There is progress but the government must keep listening. Because in the end, it’s not just trees and targets at stake, it’s the future of Welsh farming.