NFU Cymru President Aled Jones has opened the annual NFU Cymru Conference by calling for the next Welsh Government to deliver a long-term budget for Welsh farming.

Mr Jones told the audience at the Metropole Hotel in Llandrindod Wells that the government formed after next May’s elections must provide a budget spanning the duration of the next Senedd to provide Welsh farmers with long-sought-after stability and security.

His comments follow Welsh Government’s draft budget announcement, where funding for the incoming Sustainable Farming Scheme (SFS) was maintained at the same level as for the previous Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) and other rural investment and environmental schemes – a move that has been welcomed by NFU Cymru.

Mr Jones said: “We need a commitment to a long-term budget that provides stability to Welsh farming and helps to ensure Welsh farming can continue to deliver for food, nature, climate and communities.

“We recognise the role the Deputy First Minister has played in securing the budget for the SFS in 2026 and for committing to the current BPS budget of £238m for the universal layer of the scheme, with an additional £102m for the optional and collaborative layers. This has helped provide much-needed stability to Welsh farming as we enter the transition period. Going forward, we look to the next Welsh Government to commit, as a minimum, to maintain the 70:30 split between the universal and the optional and collaborative layers.

“We are asking for the next government to deliver a multi-annual agriculture budget for the length of the next Senedd. We believe the totality of the budget should increase to recognise inflation and the ambition that we have for Welsh farmers to be world leaders in the productions of climate friendly food, growing our markets at home and abroad against a backdrop where our nature and rural communities are thriving.”