If we only adopt the easy bits of this report we will not move forward

Sir Donald Curry

His report published in January said �500m over three years would be needed for this reform which included shifting from intensive food production towards projects to protect the environment.

Sir Donald told BBC Radio 4's Today programme he hoped that the government would announce by July as part of its spending review how much funding it would be making available.

'Cherrypick'

He said he hoped further meetings with the farming community announced by Rural Affairs Secretary Margaret Beckett would not just be a "talking shop".

Foot-and-mouth disease left the countryside reeling

And he emphasised that there had already been wide consultation with the farming community.

"If the government fails to take this opportunity we will have a farming and food industry in crisis and becoming ever more uncompetitive.

"That will be very, very bad news and disastrous for the rural community," he said.

Sir Donald, who headed the Policy Commission on the Future of Farming and Food, said that adopting a piecemeal approach to the report - "cherrypicking" the easiest changes to implement - was not an option.

"If we only adopt the easy bits of this report we will not move forward, we will not achieve the change that is necessary," he said.

Costly reform

But Patrick Holden, director of the Soil Association, told the same BBC programme it was understandable it was taking time to implement the report's findings.

"The Curry Report sets the stage for a real major change in policy for British agriculture towards a more sustainable direction. But the problem is in the implementation because of the cost."

He said it was unsurprising the Treasury was asking searching questions of the farming community after bailing the industry out following foot-and-mouth and the BSE crisis.

Sir Donald's report, one of three inquiries commissioned by the government into the epidemic, recommended farmers should get less subsidy simply for growing food, and more for using methods that protect the countryside.

The report also recommended substantial reform of the EU Common Agricultural Policy, including cuts in subsidies based on production, in favour of schemes encouraging environmental and rural development.

MEP visit

Members of the European Parliament's committee of inquiry into the foot-and-mouth outbreak are Devon on Friday, where there were more than 170 confirmed cases of the disease.

East Midlands Liberal Democrat MEP Nick Clegg said the disease had crossed borders.

European taxpayers had provided cash to help UK farmers, so it was right the European Parliament conduct its own "lessons learned" inquiry.

It is expected the committee will visit the south west again in September ahead of publishing its findings in October.