§ Mr. Hastingsasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what is the percentage of total farmland at present classified as grade 1; what is the percentage area of first class pasture originally ranked as grade 1 in the land utilisation survey and now marked down to grade 3; and what is the purpose of this downgrading.
§ Mr. BishopUnder my Department's agricultural land classification survey, 159W which is based on long-term physical criteria alone, about 2.8 per cent. of all agricultural land in England and Wales is of exceptional quality and graded 1. Professor Sir L. Dudley Stamp's land utilisation survey categorised land both by quality and the dominant use to which it was put in 1939. Category 1A land was "arable, often intensively cultivated" and did not extend to grassland; the best pasture was 3G. Because of their different bases generalised comparisons between the two surveys can be misleading, but if the hon. Member has a particular area in mind perhaps he would write to us.