Ms Bridget Murphy:

We were asked for any suggestions from our members or what we are suggesting to our members to overcome that. Two specific things are coming up. One is that people want to explore growing hemp. The problem is with test-running it. There is a long process to get licences etc. If we are on timeframes, it would be great if those timeframes could be shifted down to allow some trials to happen.

The second thing is to have bees designated as a livestock unit. The managed honey hive would have a very large margin of forage around it which would include the wild pollinators. It would kill two birds with one stone; I accept that analogy is not very environmentally friendly. We could sort out forage and habitat of the wild pollinators which is a critical issue for the environmentalists. It would also give farmers another source of income from a different livestock unit.