Help for young U.K. farmers

Press, 3 July 1985, Page 29

Help for young U.K. farmers

NZPA staff correspondent London British farmers under the age of 40 will get special help to establish themselves under new Government measures. Hill farmers will also be encouraged to branch out into tourism and craft industries to bring in extra revenue. The new moves initiated by Britain under a Common Market regulation have been announced by the British Agriculture Minister, Mr Michael Joplin. They are seen as part of E.E.C. aims to modernise the structure of European fanning and improve its efficiency, while also safeguarding favoured landscape areas. . Farmers have been criticised in recent yeans for changing the traditional face of English countryside by such techniques as hedge removal, and widespread

drainage which has threatened wildlife, to reap benefits of E.E.C. grants and policy. Mr Joplin said, however, that the extra measures opened “a new chapter” in the relationship between the Common Agriculture Policy and the environment. The Government now intends to pay younger farmers, who often have difficulties getting established, a supplement of 25 per cent on aid given under improvement plans. Hill farmers will be helped to provide rooms and facilities for guests to convert farm buildings for craft and light industrial uses. Mr Joplin said the main aim had to be “to create a European agriculture which adds to the national wealth of Europe, rather than absorbing resources that could be utilised in other parts of the economy.”