The Future of Farming
 
With climate change, weather change and rising prices, the challenges faced by our farmers are ever increasing.  With around 75% of Dorset's land area dedicated to agriculture, the impact felt in this county is huge.  To find out more about the situation that many farmers find themselves in, I spoke to a member of the farming community.
 
Rebecca Hill farms a 1250-acre arable farm in the Dorchester area.  I asked her about the changes in farming, and she said: "I think it is getting more difficult because of a combination of factors: firstly, climate change is changing the weather.  So the weather seems to be more extreme—it is either too hot, too wet, or too cold - we are getting more differences in weather.  The price we have to pay for our fertilizers and sprays has gone up massively, meaning the cost of growing our crops is much greater and the risk they will not yield is much higher.  Also, we are losing the subsidy we have had since the Second World War.  It was a kind of cushion.  Not having the subsidy makes it even harder."
 
I asked her more about the Government support that she receives.  She replied: "We are in CountrySide Stewardship, so we are paid to have areas that grow crops that look after the wildlife and water.  However, the grants that are available are a grant.  They may pay you 40% of cost, but you still have to find the other 60%.  Therefore, the help is less than it used to be."  She said that she would prefer to farm with no help from the government but get better prices for the crops.
 
Rebecca is also a coordinator for the Farming Community Network (FCN).  She said: "The thing with farmers—especially men—is that they don't talk about their problems.  Instead of talking about the bank or the weather, they bottle it up.  A lot of the time, farmers either work on their own, or in small groups of people.  This means that they don't have the space to talk.  Being a farmer, it is not only where you work, but where you live.  You don't go to work at nine o'clock in the morning and come home at five, so you don't have time to switch off."  She added that it is very important that we, in Dorset look after each other.
 
This is just a brief overview of the difficulties face daily by farmers.  The challenges this group of people face are constant, therefore it is vital that we learn about them so we can provide support to them.