A VALE soft fruit grower helped close the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) annual two-day conference when he joined a panel discussing farming resilience.
Bal Padda, of Vicarage Nurseries in Bretforton, spoke about his family’s story at the International Convention Centre, Birmingham, on February 25, when he was one of the speakers on the main stage for the closing session.
He told how they went from farming arable crops in the Punjab, known as breadbasket India, two generations ago to producing 2,000 tonnes of strawberries and 1,500 of raspberries in the Vale of Evesham.
NFU26. Picture by Exposure Photography Adam Fradgley
The strawberry and raspberry grower was one of four NFU members who brought the NFU26 theme of ‘building farming’s resilience’ together when he addressed thousands of delegates about the weather, labour, inflationary spikes, Covid-19, rising costs and market disruption.
He said the Vicarage Nurseries team were always on the lookout for ways to boost resilience in the business and he also spoke about their roots and route into farming.
Bal said his grandfather had the opportunity to move to Australia or England and chose ‘the cold one’ and his father ‘did all the jobs’ to get the money together to buy three acres of land.
He told the conference: “When you say the word resilience, I can only imagine the life he went through.
“When you were buying land then, they were always worried you were going to put a shop on – now farmers are actually doing that, which is ironic.
“But he went out and bought the land and did it the hard way, trying to convince customers he could do a crop he had no idea about, building a team, buying plants and battling with the weather.
“I don’t know any other industry where you put £100 in and you’re happy to get £99 back at the end of the year, but you get on with it. Being a Punjabi Sikh, a Brummie and a farmer, that’s what we do – get on with it.”
Bal told delegates that problem-solving was a foundation of resilience alongside strong branding and leaning into the businesses’ unique story.
He was proud to say that skin colour didn’t matter in British farming, but that being able to do the job did.
It did not mean however that Bal wasn’t interested in showing a ‘different, more diverse’ side of the industry.
