But, when one has said all that, we know, and no one knows better than the Minister of Agriculture and his Department, that there is a Crisis in Our Agriculture Which is graver and more sudden and more calamitous, I suppose, than any crisis which has formerly descended upon it.

That this House condemns Her Majesty's Government for presiding over a Crisis in Agriculture Which has seen 6,000 farmers leave the industry in 1990, real farm incomes fall to their lowest level since the Second World War and farmers' debt increase by £400 million in two years; believes that this crisis already threatens the social and economic structure of rural areas and the livelihoods of many farmers; regrets proposed changes in the Common Agricultural Policy; arid calls on Her Majesty's Government to bring forward proposals to protect the agricultural industry by moving support from overproduction to direct support aimed at social and environmental goals by the introduction of countryside management agreements across the country, by enhanced payments for achieving environmental aims, in particular extensification of food production, by marketing initiatives, and by reformed systems of direct support targeted in particular on family farms.

Our minds were rather concentrated on that by the current Crisis in Agriculture Which unfolded as the inquiry proceeded.