Agriculture (Future Prospects) (Hansard, 6 February 1986)

§ 5. Mr. Knox
asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will publish a White Paper on the future of agriculture.

§ Mr. Jopling
I believe that the agriculture industry is best helped by being kept fully informed of our thinking for the future of the industry and of the efforts we are making to secure its long-term prosperity. However, I am prepared to consider all options, including a White Paper.

§ Mr. Knox
In view of the uncertainty and aprehension felt by some farmers in this country, does my right hon. Friend agree that guidelines of objectives for the future of agriculture would be helpful and keep confidence high?

§ Mr. Jopling
Yes. I intend to take opportunities which are offered by speeches, debates and similar events to make known the Government's view on likely developments. I intend to do that where it will be helpful. I know that some people speak about the possibility of a White Paper. The difficulty is that one tends to explain the situaton in a White Paper as it is one minute and, because Of the speed at which events are currently changing within the European Community, it is likely to be out of date within a month.

§ Mr. Torney
If the Minister decides to issue a White Paper, will he consider the huge cereals surplus currently 421 in this country and also the colossal cost to the British taxpayer of those cereals and their storage? According to experts in the industry, those cereals are apparently unusable?

§ Mr. Jopling
The hon. Gentleman will recall that one reason for our not being been able to take more positive steps to deal with the cereal surplus was the action of the German Minister in applying a veto to price cuts in cereals last year. The best thing that I can do is to send the hon. Gentleman a copy of a speech that I made to many German farmers in Berlin a week ago today, from which he will see that I tried to deal with that pressing problem to which he is so right to draw our attention.

§ Mr. Ralph Howell
When my right hon. Friend is formulating his policies for the future, will he bear in mind the difficulties that he has experienced with the milk quota system? Will he give careful consideration to a semi-permanent set-aside system to take out a percentage of each agricultural holding, preferably by encouraging a lage-scale woodland planting scheme?

§ Mr. Jopling
We are giving urgent attention, as we have done for many months, to every device—physical and financial—to deal with cereal surpluses. I draw my hon. Friend's attention to the consultation paper, to which my hon. Friend the Parliamentary Secretary referred, on encouraging farm woodlands.

§ Mr. Donald Stewart
In the light of the debate earlier this week, what action does the right hon. Gentleman intend to take on the reported speech of the EEC Commissioner for Agriculture and Fisheries, who said that he intended shortly to ask member states for a further £450 million to reduce the cost of disposing of "uncontrollable surpluses", as he called them? Is it not time that the Government took a stand to end this madness?

§ Mr. Jopling
I am aware that the Commissioner for Agriculture and Fisheries has made proposals for extra money to deal with the existing surpluses. I suspect that many members of the Council of Ministers will feel that it is not helpful to find a lot more money to deal with the surplus stores in Europe if they are just going to build up again within the next year or two.

§ 6. Mr. Spence
asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will set up a royal commission to inquire into agriculture's current situation and make recommendations as to the future of the industry.

§ Mr. Jopling
I do not consider that a royal commission would be an appropriate response to agriculture's problems.

§ Mr. Spence
Will my right hon. Friend keep this matter under review? As he will be aware, in the light of his Berlin speech, the external and internal pressures on the industry are reaching enormous proportions. There are pressures with respect to land use, conservation, use of the countryside, urban development, and so on. Does my right hon. Friend not think that a fully blown royal commission looking to the future might be a much better way of proceeding than has been suggested?

§ Mr. Jopling
My hon. Friend feels strongly about this idea. I shall certainly keep that point in mind. I must point out to him, however, that one aspect of royal commissions is that an unconscionable time passes before they give rise 422 to reports. I suspect that the situation at the beginning of a royal commission's deliberations might have utterly changed by the time its report is published.

§ Mr. Deakins
In considering the future of agriculture, will the right hon. Gentleman bend his mind to the real alternatives to the present disastrous common agricultural policy which will be fair to consumers, taxpayers, farmers and the Third world? The Third world exports primary commodities which are at present debarred from entry into the Community.

§ Mr. Jopling
Frankly, I think that the principles of the CAP, if they had been properly managed over the years, could have met all the points to which the hon. Gentleman has referred. In the past seven or eight years both Conservative and Labour Ministers of Agriculture have made points which suggest that, if there had been more responsible management, we would not be into this mess.

§ Mr. Bellingham
In considering the future of agriculture, will my right hon. Friend look carefully at the agricultural advisory services and try to diversify them so that they help farmers to set up small businesses and other on-farm enterprises? Does my right hon. Friend agree that the funds saved from cutting back on agricultural support should not go to the Treasury, but should be used to promote this form of job creation?

§ Mr. Jopling
As my hon. Friend will be aware, we are trying to adapt the advisory service more to fit the desires and demands of farmers. That is one of the purposes of the Bill which has just completed its Committee stage. My hon. Friend should take note of the fact that in recent years the advisory service's work has broadened into other things, not least conservation.

§ Mr. Maclennan
If the Minister is not prepared to publish a White Paper or set up a royal commission—I agree with the latter decision—will he give agriculture a clear view in one of his ad hoc speeches, if that is the way he chooses to deal wih the matter, of how he proposes to rectify the appalling decline in agricultural incomes that there has been during his period of office?

§ Mr. Jopling
I hope that, in fairness, the hon. Gentleman will recall that the drop in farm incomes in 1985 must be set against the increase of 35 per cent. in the previous year. He might also recall that during the past year the amount of public money from all sources that has gone to the support of agriculture has increased from £1.7 billion to £2.2 billion.

§ Mr. Key
Does my right hon. Friend agree that we have submitted to quite enough humbug from the hon. Member for Caithness and Sutherland (Mr. Maclennan), which is similar to that to which we had to listen in the debate last Wednesday? Does my right hon. Friend agree that some of agriculture's problems are man-made and that some are natural, such as the weather, which was largely the cause of the fall in farm incomes, a fall which was preceded by a rise in farm incomes which was almost as great? Will he bear in mind the ripple effects that the changes in farm incomes have on the agricultural machine industry, which is in deep trouble following the withdrawal of capital allowances?

§ Mr. Jopling
I am conscious of the difficulties of all sections of the industry, including the agricultural machinery industry. With regard to my hon. Friend's first 423 remarks, I have been in the House with the hon. Member for Caithness and Sutherland (Mr. Maclennan) for nearly 20 years. I am used to his hesitant humbug, which has not changed over all those years. Anyone who wants to know has only to read Hansard's report of that debate to discover what a mess the policies of the parties that sit below the Gangway are in.