§ Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food whether he will publish in the Official Report a table showing for 1981–82, 1982–83 and the forecast for 1983–84 of the amount of aid distributed to hill farmers under various categories directly from the European Economic Community budget and from the European Economic Community.
§ Mr. MacGregorI regret that it is not possible to identify separately, from the range of measures available under the common agricultural policy, the total value of aids given to hill farmers.
However, certain measures are applied only to farmers in hill and upland areas designated as less favoured under directive 75/268. These are the hill livestock compensatory allowances and the special assistance to participants in the agriculture and horticulture development scheme, both of which attract 25 per cent. reimbursement from the EAGGF guidance section. In addition, the Northern Ireland agricultural development programme, which applies only in the less favoured area of Northern Ireland, attracts 40 per cent. FEOGA reimbursement. This programme came into operation on 1 January 1982. The estimated value of FEOGA reimbursement in respect of expenditure on these aids for the years in question is as follows:
HLCA £ million
NIADP £ million
AHDS £ million
1981–82 20.5 — 4.8 1982–83 21.0 11.0 6.5 1983–84* 21.5 5.0 6.1 * Forecast Hill farmers also benefit from the range of agricultural market support measures available under the EAGGF guarantee section. Of these, the sheep annual premium scheme and the suckler cow premium scheme are of the greatest importance to LFA farmers. The approximate value of payments from the EAGGF under these schemes for the same years was as follows:
SAPS £ million
SCPS £ million
1981–82 18 12.5 1982–83 12 10 1983–84* 40 10 * Forecast