Farming Minister David Heath has said people in Britain are increasingly becoming disengaged from the countryside.

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The minister's warning coincided with the results of a YouGov poll showed that 55 per cent of the UK population have not been to a farm in the past ten years. Responding to the poll, 11 percent of young people aged 18 - 24 identified farming as the career in which they would most like to find work.

As 51 per cent of young people questioned wanted to work as teachers, doctors or lawyers, the proportion who view farming as an attractive career prospect is relatively small. However, in light of the fact that farming currently employs less than 1 per cent of the population, young people's responses suggest there is no lack of willing entrants, eager to find a place within the sector.

This year's Oxford Real Farming Conference in January, which carried the theme 'New Generation, New Ideas' looked at the barriers hampering new entrants' progress into farming, as well as examining original and sustainable means of overcoming these issues, including through Land Partnerships and Community Supported Agriculture projects. Cultivate Oxford, a growing cooperative of young people based near Oxford was held up as one successful example of young people carving their niche.

On Friday, the Farming Minister met with five young people to discuss the issues facing their future in farming. The meeting was set up as part of the government's Future of Farming Group which has been set up to examine issues affecting new entrants to the industry.

Mr Heath said, "There's a huge level of disengagement from the countryside which prevents gifted young people from grasping the opportunities it offers. I want more young people to think about farming as a thriving, cutting-edge industry that values the bright ideas talented young people can bring. That's why it's so important to speak about the barriers they face to make sure that we get the best into the industry."

The Future of Farming Group will report later in the summer on its findings around the issues affecting new entrants to the industry such as the future workforce, the different entry routes into farming and the challenges facing new entrants, including a lack of training and access to capital.

However, Mr Heath's department has come under fire from those who believe government policy is undermining the attractiveness of the agricultural sector. They claim moves to abolish the Agricultural Wages Board in England and Wales, and with it dissolve hard-won workers' rights and depress wages will do the sector great harm.

In December, speaking about the decision, trade Union Unite's agriculture spokesperson Julia Long referred to Heath's as "A government that is simply not on the side of either working people or our countryside." 

Speaking from a picket outside the Oxford Farming Conference in January, the union's rural and agricultural workers committee chair, farm worker Steve Leniec, said "The government plans to replace the AWB with national minimum wage legislation, which would see a reduction in living standards, sick pay and overtime rates for workers.

"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 high-tech industry year on year and we feel 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."