Radical proposals for Cumbria to become a test-bed for future ways of farming have been floated in a foot-

and-mouth recovery action plan.

A package of measures, set to be considered by central Government, include plans which could see the Common Agricultural Policy scrapped in favour of a new subsidy system with Cumbria acting as a "special demonstration area for post-CAP agriculture".

The report, commissioned by the Cumbria Foot-and-Mouth Task Force, proposes an experiment in which existing CAP subsidies could be scrapped and replaced with new schemes which are not as production-led and also help to protect the environment.

With 77 per cent of Cumbrian farms losing some or all of their livestock to foot-and-mouth, it is suggested that the area is ripe for change.

Yesterday, at a post foot-and-mouth regeneration meeting, South Lakeland District Council's chief executive Philip Cunliffe told councillors: "To change EU legislation is an extremely long-term vision but if we do not suggest it, it cannot happen."

The National Farmers Union has urged that such radical plans are treated cautiously and are not taken any further without full consultation with the farming community.

Policy advisor Veronica Waller warned against any compulsory redistribution of subsidies, which would create winners and losers within the farming industry and would be highly divisive at such a sensitive time.

The idea is included in a document, which sets out a bid to the government for Cumbria to become a Rural Action Zone as part of a long-term recovery plan.

Such status would enable the worst-hit areas of South Lakeland, Eden and Carlisle to tap into sources of European and national funding to help finance the recovery process.

Other ideas in the plan include giving businesses a new lease of life in the wake of foot-and-mouth.

Chief executive of Business Link Rural Cumbria Bob Clark said South Lakeland should capitalise upon the quality of life it could offer to employees to entice new businesses into the area.

He also proposed that farmers could add on value to their businesses by thinking beyond primary production.

In order for farmers to do this, he said the region needed to invest in more farm produce processing infrastructure.

The task force is meeting today (Friday) at the Castle Green Hotel in Kendal to discuss the rural action zone proposal and hear a progress report from rural recovery tsar Lord Haskins.