It was a pleasure to visit the Royal Welsh Show in Llanelwedd this week. This event is the highlight in the calendar for many farmers all across Wales. It provides a great opportunity to compete, exchange good practices among peers and lobby for better conditions in the industry. Given the fact that the average farmer works around the clock, it is also a rare chance to socialise with old acquaintances and make new friends.

During my visit to the Royal Welsh, I was involved in a series of meetings with both the Farmers’ Union of Wales and the National Farming Union Cymru as well as host an engagement event for the Senedd Finance Committee that I chair. Rural communities and agriculture are important to Plaid Cymru and we engage with farmers as much as we can. It is important to hear about the challenges that farmers face so we can shape our policies and our representations to the Labour Government accordingly. This happens all year round, not just at big events like the Royal Welsh Show.

At this year’s event, Plaid Cymru unveiled its plans to boost farming communities and tackle rural poverty. This includes the establishment of a Rural Poverty Commissioner, enhancing community transport in rural Wales, building more affordable housing, establishing more energy efficiency schemes including retrofitting tailored for rural households and expanding broadband availability by establishing a national broadband company. These policies were developed after extensive consultation with stakeholders and people living in rural communities as we recognise the challenges there are real and often ignored by those in power.

In my conversations with people living in rural communities, it is clear that more help is needed to combat the perfect storm they are facing. The impact of Brexit, Covid-19, Tory austerity and Labour’s failure to address poverty in Wales, all add up to a desperate need for a positive intervention - which is exactly what the rural strategy that Plaid Cymru proposes represents.

Strategies that place rural proofing on a statutory footing have already been carried out in other parts of the UK such as Northern Ireland.

It is time for Labour in Wales to catch up.