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Farming Today: 27/02/21: Farming Today This Week: Trawling, Fly-tipping, Locusts

27/02/21: Farming Today This Week: Trawling, Fly-tipping, Locusts

BBC Radio 4 - Farming Today, 27/02/21: Farming Today This Week: Trawling, Fly-tipping, Locusts

How Brexit is affecting UK trawling vessels, and the cost of clearing up fly-tipping.

How Brexit is affecting UK trawling vessels, we speak to the Fisheries Minister, plus Keep Britain Tidy says waste system is "broken" as cases of fly-tipping increase.

This week Caz Graham looks at trawler fishing and how it's being affected by Brexit and the Coronavirus pandemic. It's not been an easy 12 months for the fishing industry, the tonnage of fish being landed has decreased - with vessels staying in the harbour, rather than risking catching fish they cannot sell. The owner of one of the UK's biggest trawlers, the Kirkella, tells us it may have to stop fishing altogether if the Government fails to reach a new agreement on quotas. Meanwhile the Marine Management Organisation, the Government body that regulates the seas around England, is consulting on banning bottom trawling in four marine protected areas. 

The charity, Keep Britain Tidy tells us that the system for waste disposal in the UK is "broken", as Government figures for England show a 2% increase in fly-tipping in the year to March 2020. Landowners and farmers say it's just the tip of the iceberg, as the figures only include incidents on council-owned land. One estate manager tells the programme he is spending hundreds of pounds cleaning up fly-tipped rubbish every week. 

We also listen in on the National Farmers Union annual conference, which took place online this year.  For the first time in 13 years, a leader of the Labour party gave an address. Sir Keir Starmer set out his support for British farming, promising a review of the parties policies. 

And from Kenya we hear how farmers dealing with swarms of locusts are now trying to trap and kill the insects which have been destroying crops for the past year in order to turn them into animal feed. 

Presented by Caz Graham
Produced in Bristol by Natalie Donovan

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