Nick Brown: "I cannot promise any more money"

Unveiling the package in the House of Commons, Agriculture Minister Nick Brown told MPs there would be a three-pronged package primarily aimed at cattle and sheep farmers who have seen prices for their animals collapse.

Under the plan there will be �48.3m for the beef sector, giving about �30 an animal to producers of young suckler cows.

Ben Guild of the Farmers Union: "This is a confidence booster"

Hill farmers will get an extra �60m next year to put up payments to the sector - described as "fragile" by Mr Brown - by 55%.

Proposals to end the scheme where farmers are paid to kill their own calves to stop a glut on the beef market have also been delayed, costing an estimated �10m.

The BSE crisis is still costing farmers money

Mr Brown acknowledged the package had been prompted by the spate of angry protests by farmers across the country.

He told MPs: "I promised to listen, to learn and - above all - to help. This substantial package demonstrates the government's commitment to rural communities.

"My next task is to persuade our EU partners to lift the export ban on British beef.

"I will spend the rest of the week talking to agriculture ministers in other EU countries in the build up to next week's crucial Council of Ministers.

Angela Browning, former minister: "It doesn't resolve the long term problems"

"I know the industry has been going through a bad patch but I am confident that it has a prosperous future. To get there it needs our support now and that is what I am providing."

Mr Brown also announced a long-term government review of farming, which he promised would produce "policies which offer a secure future" for rural areas.

'Treating only the symptoms'

Shadow Agriculture Minister Tim Yeo said MPs and the farming community would "warmly welcome" the government's recognition that agriculture in general and livestock in particular was facing a "grave crisis".

He said the new measures were a "necessary palliative" but "treat the symptoms rather than the cause of the problems".

He blamed the government's handling of the economy since last year's election for contributing to the state of the farming industry.

Farm produce prices have slumped globally

Liberal Democrat agriculture spokesman Charles Kennedy said ministers should call in the bosses of high street banks to tell them the government was supporting farmers during a difficult time and they should do the same by not pushing debt-ridden farmers into bankruptcy.

He welcomed the measures but pointed that it was the second aid package to farmers in the space of 12 months.

"That vindicates our campaign supporting the farmers' calls for action to be taken," he added.

Farmers welcomed the cash lifeline, though they also warned it is not enough by itself to solve the financial crisis that has hit the rural economy.

Paul Tyler, Liberal Democrat: "Not how much but how soon"

National Farmers' Union President Ben Gill welcomed the emergency aid, saying the money would provide a "much needed injection" to an industry going through its worst economic depression since the 1930s.

But he added that it "cannot cure all the ills of farmers, particularly for instance, in the pig sector".

"We need continued government and Bank of England action to put downward pressure on interest rates and sterling, particularly against EU currencies."

A spokesman for the Hill Farming Initiative also welcomed the aid, but said: "The hill farming industry needs more than year on year emergency measures to stem its drastic decline."

The spokesman called for reform of the EU's Common Agricultural Policy to pay farmers in the remote areas of the UK more for looking after the countryside rather than just rearing animals.

Farm incomes tumble

Farm earnings have fallen 80% since 1996, raising the prospect of thousands of farms going bankrupt with the loss of many thousands more jobs.

In 1996, the average farm's income before tax was �100,000 a year, compared with �12,000 in 1998.