Devon’s farmers play a key role in the life of our county. Many of us get a snippet of this at the brilliant annual Devon County Show.

All year round, farmers are the custodians of our countryside. They create new habitats, protect wildlife, produce the raw ingredients that feed our nation, and export food around the globe.

It’s a seven-day-a-week profession and a labour of love, across many generations.

Leaving the EU allows us to leave a bureaucratic and inefficient farming policy behind. Now, we can really help farmers to be productive, profitable and sustainable. Maintaining our high UK food and animal welfare standards in trade deals is critical too.

But the industry needs to have more certainty in order to survive and thrive the raft of changes currently faced by farmers.

As I said in a recent debate in Parliament, farmers in East Devon believe there should be a clearer direction on the new environmental land management scheme and on how payments for farmers will be measured following the end of the single farm payment. And some farmers feel under increasing pressure from the Environment Agency, with farming rules for water use making some farming systems unviable. More common sense surrounding the rules that govern the use of manure would encourage farmers to make the best use of it.

I have also spoken with the Farming Minister on behalf of local pig farmers. The sector has faced many challenges, including the loss of exports to the Chinese market for certain pig processors, global disruption to CO2 supplies, and labour shortages. I’ve called on the Government to look at reintroducing a temporary visa scheme this year if farmers can’t recruit from the domestic workforce. I’ll continue to work on these issues alongside Neil Parish, MP for Tiverton & Honiton and Chair of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) Select Committee.

We are lucky to be awash with local greengrocers, corner shops, farmers' markets, fishmongers and butchers in Devon. Some of the best food produce on our shelves is seasonal, local, and has not travelled across the planet to get to our shelves.