AFTER decades of decline, farming is showing growth, according to the National Farming Union’s (NFU) man on the ground in Oxfordshire.

New government figures show the agriculture and horticulture sector of the economy grew by 25 per cent last year.

Farming now represents the UK’s fourth largest exporting sector, contributing £85bn to the UK economy and employing 3.5 million people.

William Emmett, 61, the regional chairman of the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) says the future is looking brighter in Oxfordshire.

Mr Emmett, who owns four farms in South Oxfordshire, said: “As a fourth generation farmer who has seen decades of decline due to rising prices and disease, I am immensely happy to say that farmers are now cautiously enjoying some measure of prosperity after many hard years.”

He continued: “Most people know that farming’s reputation was badly damaged by BSE and Foot-and-Mouth disease, but the biggest blight has been the steady decline in the margins farmers can make.

“In the last 30 years here in Oxfordshire we have seen potato farming basically disappear, along with most of our pig industry and many of our dairy herds.

“While farmers once were able to make a living from a few hundred acres, the prices they have been offered for their meat and milk have reduced so far that we have seen countless family businesses fold.”

But he said: “Farmers have looked at what people want and diversified – whether that be through opening their farms up to the public, by producing green energy, by offering holiday accommodation, or opening farm shops etc. We know people want good, locally-grown food and we provide that.”

But he added: “There are still many pressures on farmers. Only two weeks ago, one major supermarket suddenly decided it would be paying two pence less a litre for their milk from that point – and all the other supermarkets quickly followed.

“Farmers also use a lot of oil-derived fertilisers, which are always rising in cost.

“But we are hopeful we can weather the future.”