Hill farmers oppose subsidy change
6 December 1999
Hill farmers oppose subsidy change
By Johann Tasker
HILL farmers have been outraged by proposals to change the way that they are paid subsidies for farming in some of Britains most remote and harsh areas.
The Ministry of Agriculture intends that from 2001 subsidies to upland farmers will be based on the land farmed rather than the number of animals kept.
It claims the change from “headage” payments to area-based payments is needed as part of the Agenda 2000 reforms to the Common Agricultural Policy.
But more than 1000 upland producers who responded to a questionnaire from the National Farmers Union have strongly objected to the proposals.
Tim Bennett, NFU deputy president, said: “Hill farmers are deeply critical of these proposals, which threaten to damage an already extremely fragile sector of British agriculture.”
Respondents to the NFU questionnaire said the MAFF proposals were difficult to understand and would fail to offer the level of support they needed.
“They are so complex that it is almost impossible to fully assess the implications to the industry,” said Mr Bennett.
The response comes less than two weeks after the latest MAFF forecast predicted that the average UK hill farmer will earn just £2000 in 1999-2000.
Although most farmers would make a massive loss if subsidies were abandoned altogether, the consultation proposes to slash the available budget by £60 million.
The NFU has warned that many hill regions would revert to scrub if farmers were forced to abandon upland areas.
But it claims that support payments should be designed to fulfil a socio-economic purpose and not siphoned off to deliver purely environmental objectives.
It has also asked for guarantees that the additional complexity in the proposed scheme will not lead to an increase in the current administration costs.
The union has told government officials that British hill farmers must not be disadvantaged by any reforms when compared to farmers in other EU countries.
Hill farmer Peter Allen, chairman of the NFU hill farming committee, said his anxieties about area payments had increased since reading the proposals.
“There must be changes to what is currently on the table if the future of hill farmers is to be secure,” he said.
- Brown hints again at subsidy switch, FWi, 03 December, 1999
- Britains hill farmers earn 80p/hour, FWi, 29 November, 1999