'Clinging to the status quo is the worst option for British farmers,' said potato grower and House of Lords agricultural advisor Lord Haskins at the Adas/Syngenta Visions for the Vegetable Industry conference on Wednesday.

Delegates were left with distinctly blurred vision after remarks by Lord Haskins and PC Tinsley md Mark Tinsley. Both professed to being uneasy about the future of domestic horticulture should the UK move into the single currency.

Lord Haskins, who believes scrapping sterling for the euro is inevitable, said: 'Becoming part of the single currency will have a huge impact on British farming.' He added, somewhat sombrely that 'no British economy will be able to survive the impending threat of [a war with] Iraq.' Tinsley said: 'The high value of the pound has been damaging. But who can vouch that the currency will alter in the near future? We would be making a major mistake if we relied on currency changes for the salvation of our industry. There are too many players involved and an in-built imbalance of power between the growing and the retail ends of our industry.' Growers are in a pressure-cooker situation, where mistakes can prove fatal to their businesses and livelihoods, warned Tinsley.

He said: 'There is an intensity of requirement for successful crop production. The margin for error is minute. It is politically short-sighted to allow UK horticulture to decline in the areas in which it can compete. We have to point out that a declining industry is an economic vicious circle.'

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