Fallow land in use to halt grain price rises

A rule obliging farmers to leave 10% of their land unexploited in order to
limit cereals production will be scrapped until the Spring harvest next year,
under plans presented by the Commission on 13 September.

The proposal,
which needs approval from EU farm ministers and the European Parliament at the
end of the month, comes in response to low cereal stocks that have pushed prices
to historically high levels.

“Intervention stocks have shrunk from 14
million tonnes at the beginning of 2006/2007 to around 1 million tonnes now in
September, mainly composed of maize held in Hungary.

“Reducing the
set-aside rate from 10% to 0% is expected to increase output by at least 10
million tonnes,” the Commission said in a statement.

Temporarily
scrapping the set-aside rule would also prevent the same situation from
recurring next year, it added. “A poor 2008 harvest combined with 10% set-aside
would expose the internal market to potentially serious risks.”

Bad
weather was largely blamed by the Commission for the high prices: “The 2007
cereals crop is now estimated below last year’s level because of dry and
unusually hot weather in April followed by adverse summer weather in western
member states and drought and heat-waves in the southeast of Europe.”