'Do any job but farming' is farmer's advice

A Mid Wales farmer has said he would recommend his children do any other job but farming as "rural poverty" grips the nation.

Ivan Monckton, 58, of Presteigne, was one of a number of farmers who dressed as scarecrows at a protest at Westminster yesterday to warn of the poverty facing farmers should their pay and conditions deteriorate any further.

Rural workers carried flags and placards saying 'hands off our pay'.

They were protesting against the abolition of the Agricultural Wages Board.

But their pleas fell on deaf ears as a motion to remove the AWB from the Public Bodies Bill, which will see a number of public quangos abolished, was defeated in the House of Commons yesterday evening.

The AWB sets pay rates for more than 150,000 rural workers in England and Wales, and it has been claimed if the board is abolished farmers will become worse off.

Mr Monckton said he would not encourage his children to go into farming due to the low wages currently gripping the industry.

He said: "It's always been difficult. Even if my children wanted to, I'd tell them to clean offices - anything but farming."

For those workers already in the industry, having to move further afield to find better paid work will be another consequence of losing the Wages Board.

Steve Leniec, 56, a farm worker from Oxfordshire, said: "It is crunch time. If it the abolition happens, it'll be a step towards rural poverty.

"With no policing, no regulation, a few good employers will pay wage increases but many more will fall back to the minimum wage."

He added: "As a skilled worker, I get paid more than the national minimum but with the Wages Board gone, wages will be eroded."

There are also fears that cuts in pay will further deter young people from entering the industry.

David Hide, 46, came from Horsham, West Sussex, dressed as a scarecrow with straw stuffed in his Wellington boots and jacket.

Mr Hide, a manager at Walberton Nursery, said: "We need to promote careers in our sector to help young people see it as a viable job opportunity.

"Now they see it as a low-paid, low-skilled sector in which it is very difficult to make ends meet."

Jeremy Peck, 58, a horticultural worker from Sussex, said: "It is going to lead to a social desert in the countryside."