Prospects look up at last for our hill farmers

Research by the North York Moors National Park and Askham Bryan College suggests there is a more viable future for hill farmers following years of decline.

But it warns that scrapping the European Union Single Farm Payment scheme could reverse the uplift in fortunes and see large numbers of the region's farmers quit agriculture, something the researchers said would spell the end of the family farm in the North York Moors.

Incomes in the area have picked up in the past 12 months and are predicted to continue rising.

An identical study carried out in 2005 painted a far bleaker picture with warnings as few as 29 flocks of sheep could remain grazing on the uplands of the moors if fortunes did not pick up.

The latest indicators, published today in the North York Moors Hill Sheep Economic Study, show, however, the number of flocks has in fact increased.

The uplift is being attributed to new support schemes which reward farmers for the work they do in maintaining the landscapes of Britain's upland areas.

The study's authors said farmers' incomes could increase by at least 5,000 per year assuming full uptake of all these payments and that the programme continues.

But the future of Single Farm Payments subsidies, paid to every farmer in the European Union, is under review as part of the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy due in 2012.

The new study warns it is a "key component" of the incomes of all hill farmers and if it were to be scrapped just one of the six farms analysed in the study would have a viable future.

It said: "Given the pressures on finances within the EU it is anticipated that there will be pressure to alter the Common Agricultural Policy and to bring in substantial changes to the Single Farm Payment scheme.

"Single Farm Payment money might well be cut, redistributed with member states or redefined in terms of their purpose."

The national park authority's farm and moorland officer, Rachel Pickering, said: "The level of support for hill sheep farmers in the Environmental Stewardship agreements is significant which is at last bringing a degree of stability to farm incomes and our moorland flocks.

"Hill farmers in the national park face very tough conditions yet carry out an immense contribution to the conservation of the North York Moors. Anything that helps this work to continue is to be welcomed.

"There is a wealth of help and advice open to farmers about available funding and the national park authority and Natural England are doing all we can to ensure our hill farmers can access their full entitlements. It is also pleasing to see from the report that four, possibly five, of the six farms in the study are confident their flock will be taken over by family or other successors should they retire or leave the farm."

Ms Pickering added that better prices for lamb had made a small difference but the real decisive factor in the upturn was the support shake-up.

She added that scrapping the Single Farm Payment would be "extreme" in its consequences for hill farmers.