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Farming Today: The ancient art of letter-writing and Britain's oldest breed of pig

02/12/2016

The ancient art of letter-writing and Britain's oldest breed of pig

BBC Radio 4 - Farming Today, The ancient art of letter-writing and Britain's oldest breed of pig

Will the Rural Payments Agency make their payments to farmers on time?

Presented by Charlotte Smith. Will the Rural Payments Agency make their payments to farmers on time? And the programme looks at Britain's oldest breed of pig.

Today its all about the old fashioned art of letter writing, and we meet the oldest recorded breed of pig in Britain.

The Environment Food and Rural Affairs Committee has written to Chief Executive of the Rural Payments Agency, Mark Grimshaw, to remind him of his pledge that 90% of farmers' Basic Payments Scheme claims in England will be paid by the end of this month. Some farmers are still waiting for last year's money.

Neil Parish MP and Guy Smith from the National Farmers Union voice their concerns on the Rural Payments Agency, hoping that this year the money will arrive on time.

This week we've been focusing on the pig industry and today Beatrice Fenton meets with Sue Fildes on her farm near Dartmouth in Devon. Sue farms Berkshire pigs. They're oldest breed in Britain and they're now becoming popular in Japan.

Also in the programme, the UK's 4 farming unions, along with 71 leading food businesses have written to the Times to set out their stall on Brexit. In it they voice their concerns regarding import and export tariffs and they want continued access to an EU workforce.

Presenter: Charlotte Smith
Producer: Martin Poyntz-Roberts.

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