IRELAND THINK PIECE

BY ALAN OSBORNWE know that British farmers are generally lining up behind EU farm commissioner Franz Fischler's bid to reform the Common Agriculture Policy but how do they see things the other side of the Irish Sea? Neither the government nor farmers in Ireland have so far expressed much enthusiasm about the plan to switch from production-linked to flat payments - the so-called de-coupling process.By contrast British farmers, says Dr Derek Wilkinson, chief economist at the National Farmers Union, see Dr Fischer's plan as "a huge opportunity for them to develop ...


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