Retirement for disease-hit farmers?

21 March 2001



Retirement for disease-hit farmers?

By Alistair Driver

AGRICULTURE minister Nick Brown is considering an early retirement scheme to help farmers devastated by foot-and-mouth disease leave the industry.

Sixteen more cases of foot-and-mouth have been announced, taking the number of outbreaks to 411 as at 1400hrs on Wednesday (21 March).

Mr Brown has held talks with European Union farm commissioner Franz Fischler about a recovery package to help farmers once the crisis is over.

The package may well include an early retirement scheme, Mr Brown told MPs at an Agricultural Select Committee hearing at the House of Commons.

Mr Brown has previously resisted introducing an early retirement scheme, describing the idea as deadweight because of the huge costs involved.

But he told MPs: “I do wonder now if such a scheme may play a part in responding to the specific circumstances now facing us.”

Other issues being considered include a market support and assistance from social security, but help for farmers may come at a cost he indicated.

Mr Brown said a review of the current crisis may lead to new measures or new restrictions on the industry, particularly the sheep sector.

He told MPs he is considering restricting the movement of sheep from a farm for 21 days after they have been purchased from a market.

Mr Brown is also looking at the whole issue of sheep subsidies.

The Ministry of Agriculture will considering whether to ban swill feeding – a practice which has been widely blamed for triggering the foot-and-mouth crisis.

Chief veterinary officer Jim Scudamore was forced to admit to MPs that the government was not prepared for such a bad outbreak of the disease.

The government had prepared contingency plans at a local and national level, “but there was no scenario to look at circumstances like this,” he said.

However, Mr Brown dampened speculation that the ministry knew about the foot-and-mouth outbreak weeks before the first case officially occurred.

Timber merchants received inquiries from MAFF about buying railway sleepers to build funeral pyres for carcasses before the first case was confirmed.

But Mr Brown said the inquiries were part of a contingency plan by local MAFF offices. He knew nothing of the disease before 20 February, he said.