Agriculture: CAP Direct Payments

Lord Grantchester Excerpts

Tuesday 27th July 2010 Lords Chamber

[Lord De Mauley]

I am grateful to the right reverend Prelate for that question. We recognise that the future of the uplands is a matter of considerable concern to a great many people and organisations. We have a wide range of policies and schemes in hand—the uplands entry level scheme and others—to address individual issues raised by the Commission for Rural Communities. We recognise the potential of the uplands for generating greater public goods and we are working on unlocking that.

[Lord Grantchester]

I declare an interest as a farmer receiving payments. Does the Minister agree that, to capture improved returns, agriculture needs to move beyond primary processing and up the value-added chain? What is Defra doing to help in this regard?

[Lord De Mauley]

I agree with that. I have explained a bit about what we think is the right way to go in terms of competitiveness. I will leave it at that for today.