HC Deb 21 November 1991 vol 199 cc412-3
9. Mr. Robert Hicks

To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food when he hopes to publish his consultative document about the future of United Kingdom agriculture; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Gummer

The Government's statement on agriculture, "Our Farming Future", was published on 15 November.

Mr. Hicks

I am sure that all concerned with agriculture and the future of the countryside will welcome that review. Does my right hon. Friend agree that farmers make a major contribution to the rural economy and that if that function is to continue, it is essential that, in the context of the CAP reforms, there should be no discrimination against United Kingdom producers on the basis of farm size, and that payment for alternative forms of land use must be meaningful?

Mr. Gummer

I thank my hon. Friend for his congratulations. I agree: payments must indeed be meaningful, and farmers must be paid for doing the job. We do not want to pay them for doing nothing; we want to pay them to look after the land properly. That is why we want environmental payments to be at the centre of agricultural reform, rather than being an extra.

Mr. Hardy

Will the Minister give urgent consideration to a serious danger that is likely to develop as a result of the ban on stubble burning? There will almost certainly be a considerable increase in the use of pesticides and other farm poisons.

Mr. Gummer

I would not designate pesticides "farm poisons". I think that, although we should use them to the minimum extent that is required, we should be grateful for the existence of pesticides, for without them we should not be able to feed our people so generously and valuably. I am well aware of the problem that the hon. Gentleman mentions, but I nevertheless feel that the Government were right to ban stubble burning, which I consider an unacceptable practice.

Mr. Marland

I, too, congratulate my right hon. Friend on his document "Our Farming Future". Does he believe that the day will ever dawn when we can begin to undo the harm done by the market-distorting subsidies that are given not only across the whole of agriculture, but across the European Community? The common agricultural policy has never cost so much money, yet the money never seems to be enough.

Mr. Gummer

I agree. Paradoxically, at a time when the CAP is more expensive than ever before, farmers rightly complain that their incomes have diminished significantly. We need a reformed CAP that will do its job properly, and to do that we must be full, active and central members of the Community. I reject the remarks made earlier by the hon. Member for Bolsover (Mr. Skinner), who said from a sedentary position, "We have had 20 minutes slagging off the common market", and then added—turning to his hon. Friends—"and now you are going to vote for it." That shows the extent of Labour's unity on the Common Market.