Cap reform will top the agenda at the NFU AGM in Birmingham on February 16-17.

Outgoing NFU president Sir Ben Gill will chair a political debate with secretary of the state Margaret Beckett MP, Defra European commissioner Franz Fischler and Irish agriculture and food minister Joe Walsh, who is also chairman of the EU’s agriculture council.

Sir Ben said: “The changes agreed to the CAP last year signal the biggest watershed change faced by farmers since the second World War. The CAP as it stands is a dinosaur that will be laid to rest.

“In 2005 farmers will not be supported to produce, but rather have their CAP payments decoupled and subject to environmental conditions. Suddenly farmers will be free to produce what they want - and more critically what the market wants.”

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