A REPORT highlighting the poor state of Northern Irish farming has been described as a "wake-up call" by Farmers for Action.

The rural support report, available to view here, should be compulsory reading for the province's politicians, according to FFA's Sean McAuley, as it highlights the difficulties that NI farmers are facing extracting a living from primary food production.

"Stormont must end their blind drive that agri-food is the silver bullet industry, regardless of whether NI’s farmers are going to be paid properly for their produce, and treated fairly.

"Since about 1985, rural NI has faced unprecedented increasing price pressure from corporate food retailers, wholesalers and processors and, in addition, now has to deal with Brexit, whilst currently losing money on a daily basis, across most of the staples," said Mr McAuley.

"The report vindicates this, and demonstrates that the corporates treating our farmers and farming families like slaves is a 21st century disgrace. This report should be a wake-up call to Stormont, the agri-food industry and corporate food retailers alike.

"The solution is on the table and is already in the hands of the agriculture committee, all political parties and independents," he added, referring to FFA's own proposals for minimum pricing legislation.

"Farmers for Action are grateful for the timing of this report, as it will support the two plus years of work already carried out in conjunction with NI Agricultural Producers Association.

"It welcomes support from all of those who are interested in rural Northern Ireland, and encourages them to come onboard against this corporate blight on our land, and see this legislation go forward with all haste."