SUSTAINABLE LAND-USE
Central Wales is one of the least populous areas in the British Isles but it is rich in natural resources . However the quality of farmland along the route is very varied. Some of it is productive (with the help of fossil fuels), but the higher ground is generally less so, with poorer and more eroded soils. Apart from lamb and timber there is not much produced here.
Marginal farmland.
An unintended consequence of the EU subsidies system is that there is a great deal of uneconomically farmed land in marginal areas such as these, land that could be put to better use for food and timber. Although it would be wrong to see these large open areas as a blank canvas there is great scope to use the land more effectively and to derive more economic and environmental value from it in the process.
There is a lot of softwood grown industrially, but virtually none for local consumption. Once there were extensive orchards in the Dyffryn Tywi, but they have given way to pasture land, and the problem is that current agricultural and forestry methods practised in the UK support very few jobs and produce very little local food. In central Wales this is certainly the case.
But a change to localised, diverse farming and forestry systems, as described below, would have the potential to give the communities in this corridor a much greater degree of food and fuel security. It would also help to improve soil quality, create small businesses and jobs, and help local economies to become more self-reliant.
Topography and soils
The land-forms within the corridor vary considerably as the initial landscape character tract analysis shows. There are four sections where the railway runs in a river valley:
· The upper Tywi between Llandeilo – Llandovery
· The Irfon between Llanwrtyd Wells – Builth Wells
· The Arran between Penybont- Llangunllo
· The Teme / Clun between Knighton – Craven Arms
The escarpments of these river valleys nearly all face south-east and north-west, the south-facing Shropshire Hills being the exception, and the slopes are of differing gradients. Much of the steeper land, in the Llangunllo / Knighton section for example, would be allocated to mixed forestry although there are some areas where terraced horticulture would be appropriate, and certain forms of framed housing could also be located on, what is at present, difficult terrain.
Land modification
Terracing to steeper slopes in order to control storm drainage and soil erosion. Earth banks and dry stone retaining walls. Ubiquitous in Mediterranean countries, Africa, South America and Asia, China and South-east Asia but rarely used in Britain. Advantages being:
· Creation of more level land for agriculture
· Soil erosion and degradation avoided
· Storm-water and percolation managed
· Labour-intensive, local employment in construction and maintenance. Small local quarries re-opened.
There would also be local enterprises occupied in soil creation, large-scale composting of domestic waste and biomass (such as bracken) the production ofbiocharand the local manufacture of structures and components for horticulture.
A Future Food Supply
The most reliable science tells us that because of accelerating climate change, rising energy costs and population growth, food security is becoming a serious concern. With water and energy security this ranks as one of the most significant global threats. In Britain we will not be able to continue using our farmland inefficiently while importing a large percentage of our food from other parts of the world. Facing so many global uncertainties we must reduce our dependency on long supply chains and insulate ourselves against future shocks.
In informed circles there are two views of the future of the world food supply, both of which accept that there is a looming crisis. One is that technology will provide the answers in the form of bio-engineering techniques. But this is considered a high-risk gamble by those who believe that food should be produced naturally and eaten as close as possible to where it is grown. That we should farm with nature, consume with respect and waste nothing.
This is the “Plan B” approach at the heart of the HoWLEN project. The belief that while benefit should be taken from advances in technology, the prudent and ethical course is to develop a localised farming system. Large-scale, industrialised agriculture will doubtless continue elsewhere in the UK but there is an urgent need for an alternative, local produce system too. A method of farming that will allow much more community involvement, provide reliable supplies of food and fuel to local consumers, create employment and boost rural economies.
Home-grown Food
The HoWLEN policy is to promote the formation of allotment groups and to encourage food-growing in kitchen gardens, back yards and window-boxes. At a domestic level this would act as a safety-net and provide many households with basic seasonable vegetables for much of the year.
New One Planet Development would be required to include land for horticultural activities. Food and fuel grown for local consumption in mixed woodland, orchards and plots integrated with housing clusters. Land on the edges of these developments would be allocated to smallholdings where larger-scale livestock and crop-growing operations could be carried out.
In addition to growing food, residents’ groups will be responsible for maintaining a network of wildlife zones and for operating community composting / waste processing and water management systems.
Within the urban areas, small pockets of left-over and “waste” land will be brought into use as carefully-planned vegetable and wildlife plots, possibly tended by schoolchildren, pensioners and disabled residents. Large containers and even builders’ bags may be used during the growing season. There are many successful examples of schemes like this but one of the more notable recent UK initiatives is the Middlesbrough Urban Farming Project.
Farming in the Forest
Looking beyond the fringes of the settlements the concept is of a continuous, mainly broadleaf forest replacing large areas of pasture land, much of which is of low-quality. The plan would be for extensions to existing forested tracts, especially on difficult steep slopes and in areas of poor drainage, and to expand hedgerows to form linking woodland belts. This forest network would be developed and used by the communities as a source of fuel, food, bio-char and building materials, to conserve wildlife and provide public amenity.
The open areas within the forest would continue to be used for mixed farming but organised on a more localised basis, much of it in smallholdings andpermacultureprojects of less than ten acres. Some “new” crops such as fibre-rich hemp and bamboo may be introduced, for local processing and use.
Community-supported agriculture and co-operatives
The other important system of local food production isCommunity-Supported Agriculture (CSA), the formation of partnerships between groups of consumers and farmers to fund a whole season’s budget. The more a CSA partnership can provide budget support, the better the farm can focus on quality and reduce the risks of food waste and financial loss.
This needs a high level of co-operation between local consumers, farmers and other land-owners. In some cases it may involve the transfer of land ownership, in others some form of tenancy or risk-sharing partnership may be more appropriate.
The Soil Association is actively promoting CSA schemes and believes that reconnecting consumers with producers may be the single most important strategy for breaking our dependence on industrialised agriculture and moving towards a higher level of local self-reliance.
The aim of the HoWLEN project is to get more people actually involved in small-scale agriculture and horticulture. With the decline of EU subsidies it is likely that existing farmers will need to diversify. Local people, families and co-ops would own or lease larger areas. Many more smallholders would appear, small businesses working the land more labour-intensively, their consumers being mainly in the Heart of Wales, their outlets being the busy marketplaces in the communities.
The forest corridor as regional breadbasket
Some sections of the corridor, such as the upper Tywi valley, are more suited to intensive farming than those in the upland areas where the emphasis on woodland activities may be more appropriate. In these fertile valleys large areas currently used for grazing livestock would be converted to small-scale market gardening. But even here the forest network would provide a framework for the food-growing areas.
Effectively, the corridor would become a “bread-basket” supplying local communities but also targeting the more distant markets of South Wales and the Midlands, making good use of the HoWL railway.
Some valley market towns such as Llandovery, surrounded by fertile agricultural land, are particularly well placed to develop as centres for direct food marketing , distribution and processing
Of course, changes to food and fuel farming such as these would be appropriate to many of the remoter parts of Britain.This one just happens to have a railway running through the middle.