Your Say

1/10/2007

MEPs scrap set-aside land

Set-aside land is to be put back into production after the European Parliament approved plans to set aside the policy of set-aside for this autumn and next spring, says Johnathan Evans, Conservative MEP for Wales.

The move means that farmers across the European Union will no longer be forced to keep a significant part of their land out of production.

Set-aside land – where up to 10 per cent is compulsorily taken out of production – was first introduced to limit production amid growing concerns of food mountains created by the Common Agricultural Policy. Recent reforms to the CAP – notably the decoupling of subsidy from production – have caused set-aside to become an anomaly that hinders farmers' efforts to respond to market demand. 

Cereal levels are now at dangerously low levels – prompting fears of food shortages over the coming months. Intervention stocks have shrunk from 14 million tonnes at the beginning of 2006/2007 to around one million tonnes now, mainly composed of maize held in Hungary. According to Commission estimates, a zero per cent set-aside rate could encourage EU farmers to produce an additional 10 to 17 million tons in 2008. 

The Conservatives have taken measures to ensure the Commission's proposals to abolish set-aside were taken as an 'urgency' matter through the agriculture committee. Set-aside will be set at a rate of zero per cent for autumn 2007 and spring 2008, but Mr Evans believes this is the first step to its total abolition when the EU carries out a 'health check' of the CAP in 2008.
 
He said: "This announcement will hopefully act as a ray of sunshine in an otherwise gloomy summer for Welsh farmers. Set-aside is an anachronistic policy that should have been scrapped when the CAP was decoupled.
 
"When set-aside was thought up, we were paying farmers to produce food mountains. Now we are facing serious shortages of food and, for the first time in 25 years, food security is becoming a serious issue again.
 
"We want farmers to be more responsive to the demand of the marketplace, yet we are tying one hand behind their backs by forcing some of their land out of production. Even if the demand for food is not so great, farmers will be able to use fallow land for producing non-food crops like biofuels.
 
"The European Parliament has moved quickly to ensure this policy can be scrapped without any further delay. Abolishing set-aside will enable farmers to respond to the market, will keep food prices down and will help alleviate Europe's growing food security problems.”

back to news page