The National Farmers' Union (NFU) is an employer association representing farming and growing businesses within England and Wales.

[3] On 20 July 1906, the Eastern Counties Agricultural Labourers & Small Holders Union[note 3] was formed in an attempt to combat these retributions, and further renew unionisation efforts among farmworkers.

[3] On 10 December 1908, a meeting was held at the Smithfield Show to discuss the formation of a national organisation formed from the LFU.

[2][5] The NFU's first president, Colin Campbell, worked to get new branches off the ground, encourage membership and establish the NFU's credibility with government, at a time when farming was going through the longest and deepest depression in its history, as imports of cheap grain and frozen meat flooded in from abroad.

[7] Campbell was succeeded as NFU President in 1921 by Richard Robbins, an employers' representative on the Agricultural Wages Board.

[5] On 3 December 1955, 12 Welsh members of the NFU left and formed the rival Farmers' Union of Wales.

[14] Both deputy president Tim Bennett, and Derek Mead—a founding member of Farmers for Action (FFA) as well as a NFU Council member—stood as candidates.

[14][15] Following, the pressure groups' formation David Handley announced he would challenge sitting NFU President Tim Bennett for the position.

[22][24] In 2016, the Ethical Consumer Research Association published a report Understanding the NFU - an English Agribusiness Lobby Group.

The report described the NFU as promoting policies that benefit big agribusinesses at the expense of farm workers pay and conditions, the environment, and animal welfare.

[26][27] In the lead-up to the referendum, the NFU commissioned a report by Wageningen University which found that two of three Brexit scenarios could increase farm-gate prices.

[30][31] In the October 2024 budget, the Labour government announced reforms to inheritance tax which revoke the exemptions for agricultural estates.

Prior to its abolition in 2013, the National Farmers' Union nominated eight employers' representatives to the Agricultural Wages Board of England and Wales.

NFU Cyrmu nominates one of the two employers' representatives on the seven-member Agricultural Advisory Panel for Wales.