10/05/2022 - Subsidies, the cost of rural living and spring veg

The Liberal Democrats says the government is failing to meet the needs of rural areas and that more support is needed for farmers who are facing their Basic Payments being phased out.

And we're talking about the rising pressures on rural communities, including how the combination of changing farm subsidy payments, and higher input costs, means even the top performing farmers are now risking going out of business. New research published by the Countryside and Community Research Institute has identified a predicted loss of £883 million pounds from the rural economy, for the four counties of South West England and the Isles of Scilly, following changes to farm and rural funding, post-Brexit.

And all this week we're looking at spring vegetables and how at this time of year, there is a bit of a ‘hungry gap’ for commercial veg growers.

Presented by Anna Hill and produced for BBC Audio by Caitlin Hobbs.