A HUGE fall in farm profits is putting rural jobs at risk, industry leaders have said.

Farm incomes are expected to drop by as much as 20 per cent this year, wiping about £800 million from the industry's coffers.

Low prices for milk and meat, the BSE crisis and the strength of Sterling against foreign currencies are behind the crisis, a local spokesman for the National Farmers' Union said.

Producers are being told to start cutting costs now because the economic climate is not expected to improve until late next year.

Agricultural consultants also forecast that farmland prices could fall by 30 per cent - around £1,000 an acre on average.

Colin Metcalfe, assistant secretary of the NFU's Ribble Valley section, said: "Farmers are certainly going through a tough time at the moment.

"The BSE scare has had a big effect, as well as price falls and the strength of the pound.

"There has been a 2p drop in the price of a litre of milk alone and further decreases are on the way. Farmers are being hit from all sides."

Mr Metcalfe said many Ribble Valley farms, being family businesses, were less reliant on hired labour than elsewhere in the country, but the "only reason some farmers were carrying on was for their children."

NFU president Sir David Naish is to meet Eddie George, governor of the Bank of England, early next month to enlist help for the industry.

He has already failed to persuade the Government to apply for aid under EU measures designed to compensate farmers who have been hit by currency fluctuations.

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