Hill Farming (Hansard, 5 May 1988)

§ 2. Mr. Kennedy
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will make a statement on the current level of average income in the hill farming sector.

§ The Minister of State, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (Mr. John Selwyn Gummer)
The latest information on the incomes of hill and upland livestock farms is shown in tables 30, 31 and 32 of the White Paper on the "Annual Review of Agriculture 1988"—Cm. 299 —and, in more detail, in the recent publication "Farm Incomes in the United Kingdom".

§ Mr. Kennedy
I thank the Minister for that comprehensive answer. Following the Brussels summit in February and the decisions or actions initiated there on price stabilisers, particularly for sheep, there is bound to be some anxiety in marginal agriculture areas, such as my constituency in the Highlands of Scotland, about long-term trends in the sheep sector. Will the Government carefully bear in mind the long-term concerns in areas such 1001 as the Highlands when reaching or implementing domestically any decisions that follow from European decisions?

§ Mr. Gummer
I have recently spent some time in the mountainous areas of Wales, which have similar problems. I am sure the hon. Gentleman will accept that we keep the matter under close consideration, because those areas rely particularly on sheep for their income and we shall be taking them into consideration in the coming review of the sheepmeat regime. However, the forecast for the 1987–88 accounting year suggests a reasonably healthy rise in incomes for such farms in the United Kingdom.

§ Mr. Curry
Will my right hon. Friend accept that little could be more damaging to the hill sheep producer than a set-aside programme which encourages people to go into livestock, notably sheep, on the lowland? Will he exercise the option that he will have when he draws up his set-aside programme to make sure that while safari parks with camels or lions may be put on set-aside land, sheep are not.

§ Mr. Gummer
I am not sure that I wish to encourage camels on such land either, but the matter that my hon. Friend raises is important and we are trying to reach a decision on that in the set-aside arrangements. People are obviously considerably worried if they feel that others are supported in a way that they are not to produce something in areas where other opportunities exist. That is obviously a matter of great importance, on which my right hon. Friend will have something to say later.

§ Mr. Campbell-Savours
What about the shortfall in income for hill sheep farmers in Cumbria and other parts of the United Kingdom as a result of Chernobyl? Is the Minister aware that 66 farmers in Cumbria believe that they are owed £172,000 by Her Majesty's Government for damage arising from the Chernobyl incident? Does he not think it unreasonable that an accident that took place thousands of miles away in the Soviet Union should be paid for by my constituents and other farmers in the county? I recognise that there have been many discussions over the past year, but can he, even at this late stage, help us out?

§ Mr. Gummer
We have looked carefully at all the individual claims. There is no doubt that in any system some will fall outside the guidelines, whether on Chernobyl or any other matter. If the hon. Gentleman wants to do something about Chernobyl, he might ask his hon. Friend the Member for South Shields (Dr. Clark) to stop stirring up worries and anxieties over Chernobyl on matters that do not exist and never have existed.

§ Sir Hector Monro
Does my right hon. Friend agree that hill farming is a hard-pressed section of the industry? Does he accept that the environmentally sensitive area programme has been a great success? Is there any hope of extending that programme, so that more farmers can avail themselves of management agreements in difficult highland areas?

§ Mr. Gummer
I am sure that my hon. Friend is right in saying that the implementation of the first, and now the second, set of ESA proposals has been a success, but they are an experimental series of areas from which we must learn. It would be a mistake to suggest that we could now decide on extensions. However, we are obviously learning 1002 all the time from the wide range of areas concerned, and if we find that it is sensible to extend them, no doubt we shall do so.

§ Dr. David Clark
When the Minister looked at the tables of average incomes in the upland areas, did he notice that some of the incomes were very low indeed? Will he take seriously the point raised by my hon. Friend for Workington (Mr. Campbell-Savours)? Does he accept that in some cases in Cumbria and Wales those low incomes were affected by the shortfall in Chernobyl payments? Is he aware that I wrote to his right hon. Friend the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food at the end of March suggesting that we should appoint local adjudicating committees to look at all the cases to find a reasonable and fair solution to the problem?

§ Mr. Gummer
We have tried hard throughout to look at those cases as carefully as possible and to give them the compensation to which they are entitled. A further look at the same cases will not make any difference. I repeat that I hope that the hon. Gentleman will take on his shoulders the serious responsibility that he bears in trying to frighten people in areas where no fears need to be raised.