Agriculture has a unique role to play in developing renewable sources of energy - but the industry needs to be given the right infrastructure in order to fully realise its potential in combating climate change.

That's the message the leader of the Country Land and Business Association, Mark Hudson, delivered at the Royal Cornwall Show.

"I have no doubt that the climate is changing and it is up to us to mitigate the problems for the future. Whatever we do now is not going to have any effect on the climate for the next 50 years but in order to ensure that things get no worse, we have to act decisively and we have to act now," he said.

Mr Hudson also spoke about the role of the new government agency with responsibility for the countryside, Natural England. He said he was anxious to ensure that there was a link between environmental and social objectives and economic activity.

"We all know that the first two cannot be achieved without a strong economic set up but within this reformed body there is a real danger that the economic aspect of rural activity will be hived off elsewhere and forgotten."

On the first day of the show the traditional CLA breakfast seminar tackled the issue of access.

The new rights of access mean new costs for the council tax payer and somebody has to pick up the bill said CLA SW director, John Mortimer.

Mr Mortimer questioned the wisdom of introducing an Act of Parliament which had cost £57 million to implement so far and which would continue to put further strain on overstretched local authority budgets.

Cornwall had 2,700 miles of rights of way and the implications for the future if the government proceeded with its intention to extend the right of access to coastal land were considerable.

"This is one of the biggest challenges facing land managers at the moment - and the debate is hotting up," he said.

Sharing the platform with Mr Mortimer was Toby Claridge, of Hancock Caffin and Mike Pennington, representing the RICS, both talking about different aspects of the act.

Later in the CLA marquee the ARC Addington Fund launched a new affordable rural housing development in Cornwall which has involved Cornwall County Council and the ARC in a scheme to renovate redundant County Council owned farm buildings into five affordable rural housing units.