YOUNG farmers from Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion are in the final five hoping to win a Wales YFC video promo competition.

The video idea came after the Welsh Government cut Wales YFC funding by £140,000 and the Wales YFC Youth Forum launched a competition for members to help promote the positive impact the organisation has within Welsh agriculture.

Members were asked to ‘capture your county’ in a new recruitment campaign.

In December 2014, the Federation was told it had lost a £20,000 grant from Natural Resources Wales (NRW), which said its funding scheme was ‘over-subscribed’ and had relegated the Wales YFC grant to a reserve pot of funding.

At the same time, the Welsh Government withdrew a £120,000 annual grant from its National Voluntary Youth Organisations (NVYO) grants programme, leaving members devastated at the potential consequences of both actions.

An online petition to gather support from rural communities in a bid to save the Federation resulted in the Government agreeing to award £88,600 of ‘transitional’ funding to Wales YFC while it developed a new five-year plan over the next 12 months to forge closer working relationships between the Welsh Government and the Young Farmers Federation.

The past months have seen a new management restructure in the Wales YFC office in order to comply with financial demands. Two members of staff have been made redundant, with another taking voluntary redundancy.

Officers and staff within the Welsh Federation say they are now working hard to establish further funding for the movement, through both public and private avenues.

Wales YFC chairman Iwan Meirion said the support from all Wales YFC members, stakeholders, partners and the general public had been amazing over the last few months.

He said: “It really does show Wales YFC is an integral part of rural Wales.”

The five shortlisted counties include Ceredigion, Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire and will be hosted on the Farmers Guardian website for a public vote which will count as part of the overall judging process.

Voting closes at midnight July 22 and the winning county will be announced and presented with £750 at the Royal Welsh Show on July 23.

To watch the videos and register a vote visit www.fginsight.com/news/wales-yfc-capture-your-county-competition-open-for-public-vote-4670