Farm cash handouts reach record levels
Farmers crippled by the increasing cost of animal feed and poor crops have been handed a record amount of money by charity, new figures have revealed.
The number of working farmers asking for emergency financial assistance has almost tripled since last year – and Shropshire is among the eight counties receiving the most grant money.
So far this year the Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution has given out almost £240,000 in grants to more than 300 families to help farmers pay bills and buy food – £100,000 more than in the same period last year.
In Shropshire, during January and February, £14,000 was handed to 21 farming families.
It is among the counties with the highest payouts, along with Devon, Staffordshire, North Yorkshire, Cornwall, Suffolk, Hampshire and Lincolnshire.
But Philippa Spackman of RABI said the figure for Shropshire is down in comparison to last year, when £18,000 was given to 14 families during January and February. She put the fall down to a large demand.
She said: "Shropshire farmers have been facing difficulties for many years and the county is consistently one of those to which we give the most help.
"The statistics for 2013 don't reflect a dramatic rise on the year before because they were already high in 2012.
"The problem is that some farmers have already been pushed to the limits and have simply no resilience to further problems."
Last year a total of £112,000 was given out to help 67 families across Shropshire, and Miss Spackman said most of the money given out so far this year is in response to domestic emergencies for working farmers.
And many grants are now between £2,000 and £5,000, rather than the £1,000 the charity is more used to seeing.
The figures follow the second wettest summer on record and a harsh winter. Flooded grazing land and ruined crops have resulted in soaring feed prices which many farmers struggle to pay.
