HC Deb 15 December 1938 vol 342 cc2213-4W
Major Braithwaite

asked the Minister of Agriculture whether he will consider extending the temporary assistance now offered to barley growers to include those barley growers on the Yorkshire Wolds who have obtained a subsidy on wheat, in view of their losses on this crop and on sheep during this year?

Mr. De Chair

asked the Minister of Agriculture whether, in view of the fact that Norfolk, which grows a fifth of the national barley crop, is one of the areas that should receive the emergency assistance for barley, he will reconsider the condition which makes it impossible for a barley grower who is in receipt of wheat deficiency payments to claim for the £1 per acre barley subsidy, as the great majority of Norfolk barley growers are also wheat growers?

Mr. W. S. Morrison

The considerations mentioned in these questions were fully present in the minds of the Government when the question of special assistance to barley growers in respect of this year's crop was under examination. In view of the substantial measure of assistance receivable under the Wheat Act in respect of this year's wheat crop, the yield of which is well above average, the Government felt that financial assistance should be concentrated for the benefit of those barley growers who have not grown appreciable quantities of wheat on their land and whose need therefore was greatest.

Mr. De Chair

asked the Minister of Agriculture whether he is aware that a farmer growing both barley and wheat will have to have grown, approximately, five times as many acres of barley as of wheat before it would be worth his while this year to apply for the Government offer of £1 per acre on his barley in preference to accepting deficiency payments on his wheat; and what percentage of barley growers in Norfolk and Great Britain, respectively, grew more than five times as many acres of barley as of wheat this year?

Mr. W. S. Morrison

So far as can be foreseen at present, it is probably true that a farmer should have about five times as much barley as wheat to make the barley subsidy at £1 per acre preferable to wheat deficiency payments. Regard must, however, also be had to the acreage under oats as well as to the yield of wheat on the farm concerned.

I regret that the information desired in the second part of the question could not be obtained without a long and expensive examination of the agricultural returns.

Mr. E. J. Williams

asked the Minister of Agriculture whether he is aware that the annual profits of the brewing trade amount to £31,500,000 and have doubled since the 1933 Budget; and whether, in framing proposals to be put before the conference of brewers and farmers, he will consider if some part of these profits can be diverted for the assistance of the barley growers?

Mr. W. S. Morrison

I am aware that the annual profits of the brewing trade have increased substantially in recent years and were £31½ millions in the last financial year. The question whether higher prices than those ruling for this season's crop can be paid for barley by brewers and other users of malting barley is obviously one of the considerations that will arise during the deliberations of the conference.