Allister comments on Total Income from Farming Figures
02 February 2009
“I note with disappointment the reduction in total income from farming during 2008, with provisional figures estimating a 5.5% fall in real terms. The importance of the single farm payment to local farmers –which is in excess of the total income from farming –must be recognised. The siphoning off of funds by DARD from farmers’ direct payments via increased modulation rates, into more elusive ‘rural development’ measures, is damaging to the total income farmers receive. The Department must consider reshuffling its priorities within the £500 million Rural Development scheme into measures which will assist our important sectors become more competitive on what is an increasingly volatile World market.”
