Farmers may be in line for £13,000 help

But the announcement was only of permission for the idea and Defra still has to work out how the money will be made available.

The European Commission said on Tuesday it had approved an application by Defra for emergency aid of up to 15,000 euros a head for selected farmers – to be paid as grants and/or subsidised loans.

European Union rules normally allow up to 7,500 euros per farmer every three years for special circumstances and other countries have taken advantage of this dispensation in the past, but Defra has always been unenthusiastic. Under the "temporary crisis" rules of the economic downturn, however, other EU members pushed their limit up to 15,000 euros and after running into difficulties with assistance for Cumbrian farmers cleaning up after last year's floods, Defra thought it sensible to get permission to do the same.

It applied to spend a frugal 20 million in amounts up to the 15,000 euro limit.France had already set aside 700 million euros for its farmers under a similar emergency scheme; Germany is spending 100 million euros; and Italy 320 million euros.

The European Commission announcement that the UK application had been approved caused some confusion this week. Even the NFU was not expecting it and was still waiting for explanation about how the money would be distributed as this page went to press.

The new aid for farmers in general comes on top of a similar small fund for dairy farmers in particular, which Defra was bounced into by the rest of Europe.

Milk producers are waiting for "back pay" of 0.2p per litre for milk produced between October 2008 and September 2009. But that is from central funds. Defra has to raise the new money from its own Treasury.

Its Press office told the Yorkshire Post this week that this was not a problem. The money is already available through various strands of funding. The EC decision simply allowed more flexibility in spending it.

The national assemblies for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and regional agencies, such as Yorkshire Forward, would be consulted about how best to use that flexibility but there is no single point of inquiry for farmers who think they are deserving cases.

Decisions will have to be made relatively quickly. The EC has set a December deadline for the money to be paid out.

All farmers in primary food production would theoretically be eligible, as long as they were not already in difficulty on July 1 2008, when the economic crisis is deemed to have started.