§ Mr. John Wellsasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food whether he can now announce details of his new orchard grubbing scheme.
§ Mr. PriorIt is the intention of my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Wales and myself to introduce an amendment to the Farm Capital Grant Scheme to authorise the payment of a special grant to encourage the grubbing of uneconomic orchards of dessert and culinary apples and pears. The grant will be at a flat rate equivalent to the full standard cost of grubbing; and, subject to proposals being approved before work is started, it will be payable on applications received up to the end of March, 1973.
58WIt will be a condition of grant that the trees that are grubbed up should not be replaced within five years. The need for a grant at this level reflects the lack of commercial incentives to grub up old orchards. Mediocre fruit from these barely viable orchards tends to disrupt the market for good quality fruit from the specialist producers who alone can hope to maintain successful commercial production in the long term. I hope that with this encouragement farmers and growers with these orchards on their land will be able to institute an immediate programme of much needed grubbing operations.
My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Scotland intends to introduce a similar amendment to the Scottish Farm Capital Grant Scheme.