Why this year will be a bleak midwinter of worry for rural communities - Stuart Minting

They say it’s far from just about taxation, but rather a rural society that’s increasingly marginalised and at breaking point.

It stands to reason after the succession of blows that have rained down on agriculture. Advent has seen a fresh avian influenza outbreak confirmed on a commercial poultry farm near Beverley, just days after restrictions imposed following an outbreak near Hornsea being lifted.

However, the disease control zone for bird flu is dimunitive compared to the restriction zone for bluetongue, following it being identified in North Yorkshire in recent weeks.

The disease has been around for a century, but what’s new is what must be an unprecedented array of other challenges facing those in agriculture.

An abiding memory of the year will be the range of concerns being raised by those attending the farmers’ protest in Thirsk. There were as many anxieties as those attending.

Despite extra government funding being pumped into drainage, farmers are facing pressure to adapt to shifting weather patterns and extreme events to improve the resilience of their enterprises.

In the face of funding changes, there’s also a need for more sustainable practices, such as regenerative farming and precision agriculture and the pressure to make technological investments to optimise operations.

Following the autumn budget, financial issues, including planned National Insurance, inheritance tax, inflation and support payment changes, have sparked warnings the sector's landscape and communities could be devastated.

In the autumn government figures revealed how Yorkshire’s income from farming was £79,600 per farm in

2022/23, which represented a decrease of 5.3 per cent from 2021/22.

Farmers are well know for their resilience and ability to adapt, but it remains to be seen quite how elastic the industry is.

While economists will continue to argue over the future shape of the agricultural sector, common sense says the landscape, both literally and metaphorically, will in some areas have to change forever.

Some rural traditions and ways of life will be swept away, but some of the impacts such emphasising the case for fair prices for produce, environmental improvements and the proliferation of sustainable, diversified businesses that have previously relied on government support, provide some reasons for optimism.