§ Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, further to his reply of 19 December, Official Report, column 200, concerning support to hill farmers, and so on whether the figure of 70 per cent. includes the cost of deficiency payments on sheepmeat; and what is the percentage contribution of these payments in both cases.
§ Mr. MacGregorVariable premium payments are generally consolidated within the price received by farmers for fat lambs sold on a deadweight basis but for lambs sold on a liveweight basis through auctions variable premiums are paid direct to the farmers. For the farm management survey in England direct receipts of these premiums are conbined with all revenue from sales of fat lambs, including any consolidated premiums, to give a total revenue figure. It is therefore not possible to distinguish the proportion of net farm income accounted
1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 *1984 Gross EC expenditure (MECU) 15 27 31 41 85 139 Rate of aid range during the marketing year as percentage of the minimum producer price (a) Animal feed 27–40 24–45 28–38 39–44 25–44 †44–48 (b) Human consumption‡ 22 19–32 †19–28 Note: Separate information for animal feed and human consumption aid expenditure is not available. * Provisional. † 1984–85 marketing year to date. ‡ This scheme was introduced in 1982.