WELSH farmers have reacted angrily to National Trust calls for farm support reforms.

The Trust’s director general Dame Helen Ghosh believes farmers should only be paid subsidies for managing the countryside for the benefit of wildlife.

She claims decades of post-war intensification had produced a “double whammy” of harming wildlife and damaging the country’s fertile soils.

The National Trust receives £11m-a-year in subsidies under the current system, in addition to the payments claimed by its tenant farmers.

But Dame Helen reckons the current £3bn-a-year EU subsidy system is “broken” and that the vote to leave Europe is an opportunity to rethink it.

But her view is not shared by farmers. NFU Cymru president, Stephen James, says the picture being painted by the National Trust is one that neither he nor most farmers, or visitors to the countryside, would recognise.

Welsh farmers manage 80% of Wales’ land area and consider themselves custodians of the countryside.

“Most visitors to the countryside will be enjoying the natural environment and appreciating the views of rural Wales which have been created and maintained by farmers – including many of the landscapes showcased by the National Trust,” he says.

Mr James says the nation’s need to feed itself is of paramount importance. Slashing farm subsidies runs the real risk of reducing Welsh farming’s competitiveness against EU and global rivals. Were this to happen, Wales and Britain would become ever more reliant on food imports, says Mr James.

“To do so would risk exporting food production out of Wales. In our view, food security should be considered to be a legitimate political goal and public good.”

In recent years the sector in Wales has created 310km of new streamside corridors, 265km of new or restored hedgerows and more and 20,000 sq metres of new ponds through various agri-environment schemes.

The Farmers’ Union of Wales (FUW) has warned of the dangers of ignoring rural communities and economics in its response to a National Trust document setting out principles for the future of farming.

Responding to the publication, FUW President Glyn Roberts, himself a tenant of a National Trust farm, said: “While we would agree with some of the points made by the Trust, it appears to be a very one dimensional vision, with little or no reference to the wellbeing of the people who live and work in our rural areas, or the economic sustainability of our rural communities.

“Our environment, culture, communities and economy are heavily interwoven, with food production linking everything together. You only have to look at the Trust’s own farms here in Wales to see that complexity.

“The dangers of suggesting sweeping policies based upon single issues and incorrect assumptions are clear – in the worst cases the impacts would be akin to something like the highland clearances.”

Citing average 2015-16 net Welsh farm incomes of just £13,000, Mr Roberts said great care needed to be taken in order to avoid damaging ecosystems which depend upon a vibrant rural population and an economically viable farming sector.

“I have no doubt that the National Trust members who visit Wales want to see an economically, culturally and environmentally vibrant countryside.

“They do not wish to see areas where rural poverty has driven out the indigenous population, every other house is a retirement or holiday home, and the environment has been damaged by well-meaning but misguided anti-farming policies,” he added.