“Clearly we can’t ignore the fact that we’re moving away from a system of direct farm support to a system which focuses more on the environment,” said Gareth Parry, head of policy at the Farmers’ Union of Wales (FUW).
Unions had “worked tirelessly” to try and ensure the scheme in its final form would provide “stability and economic certainty” for farmers, he claimed.
The “million dollar question” would be how much funding was being provided.
The announcement would “provide the first opportunity for farmers to really understand what will be required of them… and what they will actually be paid in monetary terms for doing those activities”, he said.
“It’s more than a once in a generation event,” explained Prof Iain Donnison, head of the Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences at Aberystwyth University.
He said there had been “very few times in history” where there was an opportunity to start from scratch, “to go back and ask actually what is it that we want from land and farming?”
“Though it will evolve over time, the main structure is likely to stay in place for many decades,” he suggested.
And “it affects all of us – clearly we all eat food, we all go into the countryside, things like clean air and water and conserving nature are important to everyone”.