Around 10 billion euros a year intended for active farmers ‘fails to reach them’

Report calls for change as economists say 27% of payments lost

European Commission economists have claimed that 27% of direct payments ‘leak’ from the farmers they are intended to help.

The teams from the Commission’s Joint Research Centre say that when direct payments go to landowners instead of farmers they are capitalised into higher land rental costs.

They say the result is that around 10 billion euros a year intended for active farmers fails to reach them.

A move away from this is likely to be central to both the post-2020 CAP which is now being discussed in Brussels, and the UK farm support system being considered by DEFRA in London.

The Brussels report says the focus must shift from the owners of agricultural assets to individual farmers.

This suggests that at least in this area London and Brussels will find it possible to agree on the future of farm support and the need to focus on active farmers.

Meanwhile, figures have confirmed that in 2017 the EU was again the world’s biggest trader in agri-food products, with trade valued at over 255 billion euros.

EU farm ministers, meeting for their informal council meeting under the EU’s Bulgarian presidency, have agreed that help for young farmers must be central to the new CAP.

This is now being described in the EU as policies that will drive “generational change”.

It is being justified on grounds that across the EU just 5% of farmers are below 35.

A range of ideas are being looked at, from grants for young farmers starting up, through better access to education to enhanced direct payments.

While some of these measures existed in the past, it was left up to member states to implement them.

The mood now is to make it a central part of the CAP that member states will have to implement.

The European Commission has announced ambitious plans to reduce antimicrobial use in livestock and is part of a wider initiative to tackle the problem of resistance in the human population.

This has been deemed one of the biggest threats to global health as resistance reduces the effectiveness of all antibiotics.

Discussions are in their early stages, but veterinarian input will become more common and there will be a crackdown on the use of these products for growth rather than therapeutic purposes.

The commission also says it will seek powers to restrict some products completely from livestock use, reserving them for severe human infections.

Controversially it has also said it will insist imported products meet this standard – a suggestion that has already triggered an angry response from some countries that claim this is not scientifically justified.

This is another area where the UK will have to decide its own policy after Brexit, although it already has one of the lowest levels of antibiotic misuse in the EU-28.

Getty. Picture: UK pig producers are reducing their use of antibiotics.