FUW TELLS PEERS WELSH HILL FARMS ARE NOT TOBACCO OR RICE FARMS

A WELSH upland farm should not be judged on the same basis as a tobacco or rice farm in Southern Europe, the Farmers' Union of Wales today told a House of Lords committee inquiry into an EC review of Less Favoured Area (LFA) schemes.

FUW's policy director Nicholas Fenwick warned that Welsh rural communities would be devastated if farmers lost out as a result of the review.

After giving evidence to the Lords' European Union sub-committee inquiry, Dr Fenwick said: "The disadvantages faced by Welsh farmers were formally recognised as long ago as 1939, when the Welsh Agricultural Land Sub-Commission described the techniques and structure of Welsh upland farming as being in an ''advanced state of dereliction''.

The inquiry comes in response to a review of the LFA support scheme, which is to be the subject of an EC Communication this Spring. Last year the EC consulted on a range of proposals, all of which involved the abandonment of the use of socio-economic criteria to assess the LFA status of land.

Three of the four proposals mooted by the Commission involved simplistic assessment of land based upon common criteria, such as slope and rainfall - irrespective of where the land was within the EU.

"The FUW maintains that the abandonment of the socio-economic criteria for LFA designation is morally dubious, and should be resisted," said Dr Fenwick.

"The proposals to use common criteria throughout Europe seems simply ridiculous. How can you possibly judge an Welsh upland farm on the same simplistic criteria as a tobacco or rice farm in Southern Europe?

"While there is clearly a need for common guidelines and objectives, countries should not be bound by simplistic criteria. They should also be obliged to take account of socio-economic factors.

"European climates vary significantly, from Arctic to hemiboreal to tropical, rendering meteorological averages for the EU as a whole meaningless, and these extreme differences are also reflected in the diversity of farming types across Europe, and the wide range of specific handicaps that farmers face.

"The one-size-fits-all approach being suggested by the Commission is simply ridiculous when you take account of such variance."

Dr Fenwick added that recognition of the need for support in hill farming areas came in the form of the Hill Farming Act, which was passed in the immediate post-war period, and numerous other initiatives followed in the 1950s and 1960s as successive Governments sought to find ways to address the issue of rural deprivation and de-population.

"Following the UK's signing of the Treaty of Rome in 1973, British hill farming support became subsumed within the European legislative framework, and the majority of the current Welsh Less Favoured Area (LFA) was designated as such in 1975, with the final designation in 1984 giving 80% of Welsh land LFA status.

"Yet the incentives and justification for providing such support remain as pertinent today as they were in the late 1940s.

"Wales' unique habitats are a direct result of past and present farming practices, and increased economic pressures on farming, such as the removal of LFA status, would have an adverse impact on Wales' environment and rural communities.

"Moreover, the industry contributes significantly to the economic, social, environmental and cultural cohesion of rural Wales, and plays a key role in the preservation of Welsh culture, particularly in terms of the Welsh language."