The NFU has released a report to back its calls for government action on the roll-out of super fast broadband.

Although much has been made of the digital divide in Britain, the government’s plans to roll out superfast broadband to rural areas where purely commercial concerns won’t deliver the infrastructure have met with repeated delays, problems with transparency and claims that one provider, BT, has ended up in a monopoly position, paying less for the roll-out whilst the cost to the public has grown.

In March 2015, a report from the EFRA Committee on the Broadband roll-out stated emphatically that “There is a risk of poor rural broadband availability causing harm to farm businesses and the rural economy.” The government has committed to delivering super fast broadband to 95% of premises by 2017.

However, this week, the NFU revealed that only four per cent of farmers currently have access to superfast broadband, and said the roll-out of complete mobile networks and affordable reliable superfast broadband to rural areas must be prioritised by Government.
 
The union said these are essential to the running of safe and efficient farms, complying with regulation, promoting farm diversification and for rural communities to enjoy family life. In its 2015 report, the EFRA Committee expressed concern “[Rural Payments Agency] must have a contingency plan in case the new online-only CAP application system proves difficult to use for farmers with limited broadband capability” at a time when it was spearheading the government’s moves towards ‘digital by default’ record-keeping.

At a launch event on Tuesday, presenting the report to MPs, the NFU said current plans for broadband roll-out will leave an estimated 1.2 million rural premises without superfast broadband. According to the union, farmers and other rural businesses within this last 5% could be offered far lower speeds of 10 megabits per second by 2020 at best, whilst other industries and urban areas receive superfast speeds of 30Mbps or ultrafast speeds of 100Mbps plus.
 
Commenting on Tuesday, NFU Vice President Guy Smith said, “If our industry is to meet any of the ambitions of the long awaited Government 25 Year Food & Farming Plan, it will be essential for barriers to growth to be removed.  Poor access to broadband and mobile networks is one such significant barrier and the current situation is neither sustainable nor acceptable.   The Government is asking farmers to run their businesses in conditions that put them at an immediate disadvantage.
 
“We have heard of farmers waiting 15hours to download a Countryside Stewardship guidance booklet, farmers can’t comply with increasingly on-line only regulation and aren’t able to contact their customers. Farmers can’t harness the brilliant range of agri-technology which relies on a reliable internet connection. To increase productivity you need superfast broadband, to get out of the farm office and into the field.”
 
He continued, “Well over half of our members have diversified their farm businesses… but they simply won’t be able to support this wider economy if they can’t offer high-speed broadband. This is tantamount to failure to provide the infrastructure that our industry desperately needs to flourish and compete in increasingly globalised markets.”