PLOUGHING GRANTS SCHEME, 1957 (Hansard, 30 May 1957)

THE JOINT PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY, MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE, FISHERIES AND FOOD (EARL ST. ALDWYN)

My Lords, this Scheme for England and Wales and Northern Ireland is the seventh of the series to be made under the Agricultural (Ploughing Grants) Act, 1952. Apart from drafting Amendments to make the wording of this and the Scottish Scheme as nearly as possible identical, the 1957–58 Scheme embodies only two changes, both of which were agreed at the last Annual Review. The two changes are, first, the abolition of the proviso, under Part I of the Scheme, that farmers must get approval before reseeding to grass land on which ploughing grant is claimed. This change fully and formally recognises the prime importance of good grass as a feeding-stuff and, indeed, as a crop in its own right. The second change is that the qualifying date for grassland eligible for the higher rate of grant of £12 per acre, under Part II of the Scheme, has been moved forward from May 4, 1939—a date which has been becoming increasingly unrealistic—to June 1, 1946, and that will allow difficult grassland which was ploughed up during the war but laid down to grass before June, 1946, to qualify for the higher rate of grant.

130 Otherwise, this Scheme continues in the same form as last year with two rates of grant—£7 per acre for three-year leys and £12 per acre for the older and more difficult grassland. The present Scheme continues the general policy of maintaining a large arable acreage of about the present size and of encouraging ley farming, and the substitution of home-grown feeding-stuffs, including grass, for imports. I beg to move.