AS Wales celebrates its 100th Royal Show, the countryside is again top news and top politics.

But this year is so different.

The farming community is more than ever aware of the landscape, ecosystems and communities that it can either sustain - or even imperil.

As Brexit (probably with No Deal) approaches, it’s now essential that the farmers of rural Wales are newly funded to give them an explicit role as custodians of our wonderful countryside.

CPRW and its partners have long argued for such agri-environmental policies, but now its cause is mainstream as EU supports face the axe, and farming communities in rural Wales and its market towns are set to suffer a slow strangulation.

CPRW argues for both the retention and the reform of rural farm budgets, but with food (and especially lamb) seen as a wholesome product of a conservation regime.

This new post-Brexit agenda still needs finance (if, indeed World Trade Organisation rules allow it and the hard-pressed Welsh Government can find the money).

It also needs reform and compromise - even if, after all, the UK does eventually decide to remain a part of the EU.

PETER ALEXANDER-FITZGERALD,

VIC WARREN,

PENELOPE WILLIAMS,

Campaign for the Protection of Rural Wales