British farmers will receive smaller subsidies in coming years, U.K. Farming Minister Jim Paice said, adding he favoured its eventual abolition as global food prices rise.
“The single farm payment is going to go down,” said Paice, referring to the expected outcome of negotiations about the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy after 2013.
Senior EU officials have proposed freezing agricultural spending at 2013 levels until 2020, but Britain, Sweden and others are pushing for deep cuts.
A frozen budget would lead to a slow decline in its value in real terms, while available funds are expected to be more evenly spread as farmers in the eastern EU are brought closer to the level of their counterparts in the western EU.
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Farmers have received direct payments from governments that are irrespective of their level of agricultural production, which is seen as a way to support the sector without violating World Trade Organization rules. In the EU they are known as the single farm payment and represent a significant proportion of many farmers’ income.
Paice said rising global demand for food should translate into higher prices for food commodities, which should help enable farmers to rely increasingly on earning their incomes from the market.
“Certainly we are not alone in thinking the days of the single farm payment are numbered,” said Paice, adding single farm payments were very inefficient, going to “all sorts of farmers irrespective of need.”
