More money needed for rural development
More money needed for rural development
ONE fifth of farmland will be classified as non-food producing within six years if diversification accelerates as expected.
Matt Sheehan, divisional director of Promar International, speaking at a recent briefing in London, said farmers must change their approach and adopt a wider role as "rural resource managers".
This means using their farms not just for food production, but for non-food crops, conservation amenity and leisure. He reckoned there would be a significant change in land use as more farmers embraced this challenge.
"It is likely that the amount of agricultural land currently used for non-food production will treble by that time," he said.
If fulfilled his predictions would mean that 20% of the land use would be classified as non-food producing by 2007.
So far only 14% of farm businesses have taken up just 7% of the land use, according to a study by Promars Produce Studies Group.
To accelerate the change Mr Sheehan said that far more money had to be offered through schemes, such as the England Rural Development Plan.
"There has to be a switch in support from CAP funding to ERDP in the next five to seven years. We need a decent amount of money for ERDP to succeed, otherwise farmers will become cynical about it."
But he warned farmers that he expected the money to be available for a short time period only. "The money will only be here for five to 10 years – and it must be seen as a pump primer for change." *