BBCFarmers on the Isle of Man are facing a “perfect storm” of rising industry costs, a minister has said.
Issues include fertiliser and diesel price rises, an increase in labour costs and grain supply shortages.
Environment, Food and Agriculture Minister Clare Barber said farmers were being hit “from every angle”.
Ms Barber said: “All of these different pieces have come together to create something of a perfect storm within the industry, which is certainly causing a large amount of concern for farmers.”
Ms Barber said there was a wider issue on the island of food security and it was time to consider “how people can reduce reliance on some of those products that are seeing the most stark rises”.
She said she planned to look within the department to assess where subsidies could be better allocated, and make sure the industry was running as efficiently as it could.
Ms Barber said the department needed to “make sure we maintain a resilient farming community” and her priority would be to listen to people “working on the ground” to see how the current cost increases were impacting on a day-to-day level.
“I certainly don’t want to see us losing farmers… it’s really important that we keep our active farmers and we make sure the support is properly targeted,” she added.
