The European Union has put forward proposals designed to increase food production in a bid to stem rising prices.
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The European Commission has suggested permanently scrapping the ‘set-aside’ system, where 10% of EU farm fields lie fallow. Also, as expected, the Commission has proposed scrapping restrictive milk quotas from 2015, with five annual 1% production quota increases before that date.
EU agriculture commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel said the proposals were “all about freeing our farmers to meet growing demand and respond quickly to what the market is telling them”.
Set aside was suspended this year because of the global food shortage. The Commission aims to have secured an agreement to scrap the programme all together by November.
Fischer Boel also proposed simplifying the EU’s Common Agriculture Policy, by reducing production-linked subsidies to only suckler cows, goat and sheep livestock.
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By GlobalDataOtherwise, subsidies will have to be paid independent of production, helping the EU secure a deal at the WTO Doha Development Round – now approaching its final stages.
