EXPLORING pastures new via farm diversification schemes is bringing in record sums for enterprising farmers as money purely from agriculture slides.

Official Government statistics for 2003/4 showed that total income from farming was £3 billion in the UK last year down 5.4 per cent on last year.

But at the same time the amount farmers earned from non-agricultural ventures reached record levels. Nationally, the diversification turnover hit £550 million in 2003/4 compared to £425 million in 2002/3. In the North West it was estimated to be £10.2 million although the statisticians warned that the regional figures needed to be treated with care.

The Farm Business Survey published by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs covered 2,000 farms but when sliced up by region the sample size was far smaller.

Overall the survey found that: l roughly half of all full-time UK farmers had diversified, in the North West it was 37 per cent; l Around 336 North West farmers had diversified into sport and recreation, 336 were running tourist ventures and 168 were into processing and retailing; l An estimated 62 per cent of UK farming households supplemented their income through diversification or off-farm employment; l On average UK farmers were earning about £5,000 from each diversification scheme (although the survey's authors said the earnings figures could only serve as a rough guide).

Taken in comparison with the much-publicised North West Farm Tourism Survey of 2003, commissioned by Cumbria Tourist Board, the regional figures were probably a conservative estimate. That survey of 600 farms found about half had started tourism ventures and that the average turnover from farm tourism activities was almost £60,000.

Food and Farming Minister Lord Whitty said the fall in farming income was "dispappointing" but the figures showed diversification was an increasingly important, and increasingly successful earner for farmers.