Members of Unite, the trade union representing farm workers whose futures are being placed in jeopardy in England and Wales, have picketed the Oxford Farming Conference on its opening morning.

The demonstrators are protesting against the governments decision to abolish the Agricultural Wage Board, which protects workers' pay and conditions in the UK. Their protest coincides with the Farming Conference's politics morning, which will be launched with a speech from Environment Minister Owen Paterson this morning.

The AWB closure has been the subject of much controversy since it was first mooted in 2010. The devolved governments of Northern Ireland and Scotland have both opted to retain their respective boards, but the AWB's closure in England and Wales marks the end of the last remaining wage board in the region.

Furthermore, Welsh AMs reacted with fury to a Whitehall decision late last year to change the bill on which AWB legislation will pass through Parliament, a move which they believe was made with the dual purpose of fast tracking closure and avoiding the need to take the Welsh government's wishes into account. Welsh ministers, along with Welsh farming organisations, have vehemently opposed the Westminster government's plans.

Although the government claims the AWB is outmoded and its decision will reduce bureaucracy and bring wages into line across industries in Britain, Unite contests this. The union claims the AWB abolition would "Sweep away one hundred years of protections against poverty, [putting] 154,000 workers and their families at risk."

Speaking from outside the OFC, Unite's national farm workers chair Steve Leniec, himself a farm worker, told Farming Online, "I am here today because the government is planning to abolish the Agricultural Wage Board, which is threatening the pay and conditions of workers in England and Wales. The government plans to replace the board with national minimum wage legislation, which would see a reduction in living standards, sick pay and overtime rates for workers."

In addition to setting pay rates, the AWB covers issues such as protective clothing, tied in housing and conditions for seasonal workers and minors.

Mr Leniec continued, "The closure would see a direct transfer of £273 million from farm workers to farmers over a ten year period. Department [of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs] consultation documents reveal that the overall benefit to workers and the government itself of this would be nil, instead its a transfer of wealth which would see millions of pounds lost from the rural economy.

"Defra talks about attracting new entrants to farming, and yet at the same time is acting to make agriculture a national minimum wage industry – the two do not square. Farming is becoming more of a a high-tech industry year on year and [Unite] feels this is not being recognised; if the sector is to become a high skill industry, all these technological advances will be delivered ultimately by workers."

The current average age of farm workers in the UK is 55, and Mr Leinec said that the proposed drive for increased employment in agriculture will be fruitless unless better conditions are on offer.

The Unite chair also said that, as the AWB provides different pay levels, based on progressive skill set bands, if it disappears, much of the career structure in agriculture will follow. Under new legislation farmers would become the brokers, setting pay rates individually, which Welsh farming unions have said risks increasing bureaucracy for farmers and exacerbating poverty in rural regions, where public spending is already well below urban areas. He concluded, "The closure of the Agricultural Wage Board is at odds with the aspirations of the industry."