05/05/21 - Farm jobs for the unemployed, a green recovery and robot tractors

Farming Today

• Episode: 05/05/21 - Farm jobs for the unemployed, a green recovery and robot tractors
• Website: Farming Today
• Feed URL: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qj8q/episodes/downloads.rss
• Duration: 00:13:33
• Published: 2021-05-05 07:00

Last month, the NFU announced it would be working with the Department for Work and Pensions to match up unemployed people with jobs on farms. After the closure of the Pick for Britain campaign, it’s hoped the scheme would help provide seasonal workers during harvest, and cover some of the placements which might not be filled by workers from the EU. But seasonal work does not appeal everyone - so we ask the Employment Minister, Mims Davies, how this will work. A new report commissioned by the environment think tank the Green Alliance says creating a ‘green recovery’ can also be about ‘levelling up’. It finds the Government’s focus on nature restoration and reaching climate targets could create an opportunity for a permanent growth in ‘green jobs’. The report identifies just three areas, woodland creation, saving peatlands and urban parks - as providing more than 16 thousand permanent jobs. And we hear about an autonomous robot which could start replacing tractors in fields across the UK. Presented by Anna Hill Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Heather Simons