The current political impasse at Stormont means progress has stalled on the development of a post-Brexit agricultural policy in NI, and it’s vital that decisions are taken soon, the Westminster NI affairs committee has been told.

Addressed by academics from Queen’s University, Dr Viviane Gravey and Dr Mary Dobbs, along with UFU chief Wesley Aston, on Wednesday, the committee of MPs heard that NI had been ahead of the game when it comes to a new policy.

That is after a draft future policy was developed by DAERA in conjunction with local farming, food and environmental stakeholders, and sent to Defra earlier this year. However, little has happened since, without ministers at Stormont in place to take decisions.

The next stage should be to conduct a public consultation on the plans. It would normally be down to a minister to issue that document.

While the QUB academics believe that the process is stalled until Stormont returns, the UFU chief was slightly more optimistic.

He suggested that if it is deemed to be in the public interest, and political parties indicate to the NI office that they are content for a consultation to proceed, it could happen over the coming weeks. “Time is moving on. We do need decisions taken, and we do need an Executive at Stormont,” he told MPs.

Despite agricultural policy being a devolved matter, Aston, Dobbs and Gravey were all clear that there should be an overarching policy developed for the UK after Brexit, with specific policies then developed in NI to suit local needs.

It is one of the main potential benefits from Brexit, pointed out Aston, although he also reminded MPs of the serious concerns from industry that the UK could pursue a cheap food policy that will undermine local farming.

Even at current farmgate prices, “it doesn’t add up without direct support”, he said.

It was an issue also developed by Gravey, who reminded the committee that CAP was mainly in place to support farm incomes. She quoted an academic from Cardiff University, Dr Ludivine Petetin, who recently suggested that 25% of farmers in Britain could disappear after Brexit if direct support is removed. “That figure could be much higher in NI,” warned Gravey.