Cash crisis

FEW organisations can provoke such anger and frustration among the people whom they exist to help than the Rural Payments Agency. Its latest problem, which has seen payments under the Fruit and Vegetable Aid scheme suspended because of concerns raised by EU auditors, is only one of many disasters which have hampered British farmers.

The fears over the criteria used by the RPA to recognise and fund Producer Organisations, a type of co-operative, will mean another period of destabilising uncertainty, not to mention cash flow problems, for agricultural communities. It is appalling that, as the NFU warns, some farmers' staff may not get their wages on time because of the long wait for payments.

With every week that goes by, the livelihoods of more farmers are put at risk. The timing of the fruit and vegetable aid fiasco could hardly be worse, given that farmers are trying to claw their way out of recession, as well as fighting cheap European competition. The coalition simply has to get the RPA working. Set up to distribute European subsidies in England, it has become a watchword for mismanagement. It was only last year that more than 55,000 farmers received payments worth less than the costs of processing the claims. The agency's failures put at risk the long-term prosperity of the farmers who help make up our way of life.