Cumbrian hill farmers are worst paid in the industry

A report by the Commission for Rural Communities (CRC) revealed that one in four farming households were living below the poverty line by earning less than £20,000 per year, and upland farms faced the greatest struggle.

Cumbrian farmer Will Cockbain told the Gazette that more needed to be done to ensure the work hill farmers put in to care for the landscape so loved by locals and tourists was acknowledged.

“The report provides extremely disappointing news, especially given the fact we have seen signif-icant increases in market prices for livestock.”

Mr Cockbain, who is the NFU national uplands spokesman, said: “Uplands farmers need to continue seeing increased prices for livestock and we need the public to continue to recognise that the views they see in the countryside are provided by farmers, because it is unacceptable that 25 per cent of farmers are living in these low levels of income.”

The document shows that farmers receive ‘relatively little support’ from either agricultural policies or the welfare state.

The authors hope the report, called ‘poverty among farming households: achieving sustainable livelihoods’ will identify the root causes of poverty among farming households and set out what government needs to do to recognise and address the situation.

Dr Stuart Burgess, CRC chairman, said: “There is a tremendous variety in farming in this country.

"While many farming households have successfully increased produc-tion, resilience and farm incomes, one in four are living in poverty.

“A quarter of farming households have an income of less than £20,000, and in the majority of cases this derives from capitalising on the business assets rather than actual farm business profits.

"These struggling farms are likely to have grazing livestock and be located in upland areas.

"Many are left trapped in poverty without the resources or support to earn a living wage.”