TALKING POINT
TALKING POINT
However bad farming
prospects look, a
sensible policy
should ensure
survival until the tide
of agricultural
prosperity returns,
says Peter Day
Farming has experienced three dreadful years in 1999, 2000 and 2001. Although yield prospects look more promising after a drier autumn, winter and spring, price prospects look much worse than last year.
Sir Donald Curry published his report on farming and food in January and in July EU farm commissioner, Franz Fischler, published the Commissions initial proposals for the mid-term revue of CAP in 2006. The common thread is an increase in modulation to 10-20% and a cap on IACS payments at £190,000 or 2000 acres. In direct contrast, the US Farm Bill has given farmers a big rise in support payments.
The importance of an adequate and safe supply of food appears to be disregarded by both UK and Continental politicians who seem more concerned about environmental enhancement. Politicians and environmentalists appear to ignore that such altruistic philosophies work only if the industry is profitable.
So its no surprise that we have begun to see an increase in the number of farms offered for sale or to let on farm business tenancies. Should farmers quit an industry that receives nothing but unjustified criticism
For those who are not over-borrowed (a rent equivalent of not more than £60/acre) on good, productive land and who enjoy farming and have sons or daughters who want to follow them, the answer must be No. For those who are over-borrowed or have no successor, the answer is probably Yes.
There has never been so much uncertainty. Will we join the k, will the CAP be abandoned, and will interest rates remain low?
History teaches us that nothing lasts forever. The stock market boom and bust of 1999-2002 is testimony to that.
Perhaps, the most galling element of the endless carping against farming is that over-paid eurocrats, hell-bent on a federal Europe, are willing to penalise efficiency. That will be the consequence of creating more smaller production units which are less able to produce food at low cost thus ensuring greater reliance upon CAP support with financial implications for Europe.
The governments admitted failure in its handling of the foot-and-mouth crisis is evidence enough of the consequences of political ineptitude. It has therefore sought to use the EU as its scapegoat for further debacles by delegating control of our farming industry to Mr Fischler. That is a total dereliction of duty and one for which the public will pay a high price when famine replaces feast.
I suspect, like many, Britains membership of the k was a logical and beneficial step. But the probability that the government will delegate fiscal, legal and social legislation to Europe will, almost certainly, ensure the UKs rapid demise from its current world status.
We need to abandon CAP in its present form. It should be replaced with national agricultural policies which reflect national circumstances within agreed international trading criteria. Farmers should realise that no one in government is listening to them. If the public is to be made aware of the untruths propounded by politicians and lobby groups, they must deliver their message with greater assertion and clarity at whatever cost.
Meanwhile, for individual farmers committed to farming, a cautious approach to expansion and expenditure is essential. Only then can businesses be well placed to recoup losses when the tide of farming prosperity turns.