East Derry UUP calls for more farm incentive schemes

Mr Carmichael added: “Incentive schemes for farm diversification must be one of the key measures in any campaign to save rural Ulster. We in the UUP really do not believe enough has been done by the Stormont Agriculture Department on this front.

“As a UUP Association, this will be one of our main campaigning priorities for the farming sector in this constituency in the coming months.

“In other parts of the United Kingdom, awards are given to farmers who have grown and developed farm businesses.

“Such an award scheme might be a good idea here in Northern Ireland which is an integral part of the United Kingdom. People need incentives, and especially our farming sector. What we in the UUP are proposing, though, goes much further than this.

“We want to see a far greater drive by Stormont Farming Department in general and the Executive’s Farming Minister in particular to promote rural businesses, especially in East Londonderry which is a predominantly rural constituency.

“We in the UUP fear that the emphasis in the Stormont Farming Department is far too much in the direction of re-deploying farmers and farming families off the land and into some other occupations.

“We think more imagination needs to be put into using modern business skills to develop farm-based and green-orientated businesses and helping to keep rural life and rural communities alive.

“We in the UUP do not want to see the fabric of rural East Londonderry in particular and Ulster in general unpicked by a lack of focus on what we need to achieve. We want to see far more of a drive into setting up rural businesses,” said Mr Carmichael.