The lack of precision breeding legislation in Wales means the country could be left behind other nations in the race to increase food production and reduce farming’s environmental impacts.

That was the message from NFU Cymru’s crop and horticulture group chairman Tom Rees, addressing the union’s Combinable Crops and Horticulture conference on Wednesday (5 February).

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Pointing to England, where Defra secretary Steve Reed has confirmed that secondary legislation on precision breeding will be brought to parliament by the end of March, Mr Rees said that if Wales doesn’t have its own bill, it could spell devastation for the sector.

“It could finish horticulture in Wales,” said Mr Rees, who runs a mixed enterprise, including potatoes and cereals, in Pembrokeshire.

“Imagine our English counterparts use a gene-edited potato crop that gives them a 10% yield advantage – that would be catastrophic for us,” 

Mr Rees reiterated that, by using this technology and science, it is possible to reduce disease, create drought-resistant crops and produce food with a lesser environmental impact.

Wales, he added, has an excellent university in Aberystwyth, and the Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences was well placed to lead such work.

“At the moment, we’re spraying for blight every 5-7 days. We could potentially reduce that, which in turn reduces our environmental impact. Sadly, our own centre of excellence at Aberystwyth doesn’t get to be involved with any of that at the moment.”

He also warned that other countries who import grain to the UK do so with an unfair competitive advantage.

The Senedd voted against the Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Bill in 2023, with 15 members for and 36 against the motion.

A Welsh government spokesman said: “There are no current plans in our legislative programme to make any changes to the GM regulations in Wales.”