It was great to spend a couple of days at The Royal Welsh show in Llanelwedd last month. It’s a great opportunity to meet farmers and take the temperature of the industry. For an industry that prides itself on hard graft, it also presents one of the few opportunities in the year for some farmers to meet up, socialise and let their hair down. I grew up around farming communities and spent much of my teenage years working on farms so the industry is very close to my heart.

It is fair to say that farmers are happier than they have been in previous years. The Labour Government’s tree planting policy had angered many who said such arbitrary targets were ignorant of the challenges that certain farms face and the geography of our country. After a long period of stubbornness, the Labour Government finally went back to the drawing board and consulted properly with farmers, the unions that represent them, and environmental groups. What emerged in the shape of the recent Sustainable Farming Incentive – while not universally welcomed – is at least more palatable.

That is not to say that everything is rosy for farmers. There remain big concerns over plans to change inheritance tax for farms by Labour in Westminster. Plaid Cymru has real concerns that this will do lasting harm to Welsh family farms. Many farmers are cash-poor and have their wealth tied up in the farm and its assets. The tax, set for introduction from April of next year, could see most productive family farms in Wales fall into scope due to rising land, machinery and asset value according to farming unions. Whilst Plaid Cymru believes in boosting public finances to pay for frontline services across the board, we think a wealth tax should be implemented instead of targeting those who sustain our rural communities; especially at a time of global uncertainty when our own food security should be improved.

To make things easier on the agricultural sector, we have also proposed an independent review into the bureaucratic burden on the farming sector within the first 100 days of a Plaid Cymru Government. The last major assessment for farming was the ‘Working Smarter Review’ which came out in 2012 and contained 76 recommendations on how to reduce red tape. Since then, a lot has happened in farming - including Brexit - which means it is long overdue that the cumulative burden of the increased regulation is revisited.

Plaid Cymru has always been closely connected with rural communities and policies such as this are a result of that bond.