DEFRA pledges £100,000 to farm charities dealing with single farm payment problems

The government is making an additional £100,000 available immediately to key rural support organisations because of the single payment scheme crisis.

Five organisations with close links with the farming community are drawing up proposals for providing additional advice and emotional support for those most in need.

Junior DEFRA minister Lord Bach said: “From my meetings with the farming industry and individual farmers, I recognise that many are facing cash-flow problems in these difficult times.

“In order to help people who find these difficulties particularly stressful, we have substantially increased the amount of funding available to organisations dealing with hardship issues.

“However at the end of the day, these problems will only be solved with payments being made, which is why the Rural Payments Agency is working flat out to develop a partial payments system. This will deliver the greatest amount of money into the industry in the shortest possible time.”