Sir Jim Paice has told farmers and professionals farm support will go and that the days of the basic payment are numbered.

At the Royal Welsh Show yesterday (22 July), Sir Jim told the RICS Wales rural professional group that he was not calling for an end to farm support but he predicted that the days of the basic payment were numbered. 

“It’s going to be down and I think it will disappear altogether in the next couple of decades,” he told the audience.

Sir Jim reckoned the latest CAP deal was "a wasted opportunity" to break out of the "straightjacket-supported agriculture" which the EU has been in for the past fifty years. 

He also criticised it saying that more focus should be on food security and pointed out that by 2050, there would be an estimated 2.5bn more people on the planet, of which 1bn would be in continental Africa.

“I don’t think Europe as a whole, or the European Commission, faced up to the challenges ahead,” he said.

He said greater efforts should have been focused on restructuring the industry, facing challenges and investing in reducing production costs.

“Steps could have been taken to address that volatility. I believe it was a greatly missed opportunity.”

Sir Jim questioned the rationale behind EU rules, which will determine that larger arable farmers in his region, East Anglia, must grow at least three different crops in their rotation.

“Environmentally, it will achieve absolutely nothing – just a lot more bureaucracy and complications for our farmers,” he said.

Following his work whilst in office on the dairy industry's voluntary code of practice he also urged the UK to capitalise on its ability to produce grass better than nearly every country in the world to increase its milk production and tap into global dairy demand, which is rising by 2.3% a year.

“We must never forget that half our milk is turned into other products – primarily cheese, milk, butter, cream, flavoured milk and other things. Many of those are products we can seek to export. We need to break into other markets.”