Catalogue description Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries and Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Produce and Subsidies Divisions: Subsidies and Grants: Correspondence and Papers

The Ministry of Food, having taken over the functions of the Potato Marketing Board at the beginning of the war, introduced a system of acreage payments for all persons occupying one acre or more of agricultural land, who grew not less than one-tenth of an acre of potatoes thereon in 1941. Hitherto potato growers had disposed of their stocks at selling prices prescribed by the Ministry of Food, but for the 1941 crop the amount which the grower received was to consist of two parts: an acreage payment and a guaranteed fixed price per ton on sale.

In 1943 acreage payments were extended to wheat and rye. At the same time, the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries became responsible for the acreage payments in respect of potatoes, wheat and rye grown in England and Wales for harvesting in 1943, with the Ministry of Food acting as their agents as regards the examination and payment of applications, on the understanding that all questions concerning cultivations would be referred to the former Ministry for determination. Under Part II of the Agriculture Act, 1937, provisions were made for subsidy payments in respect of land under oats or barley.

These arrangements were replaced by less restrictive provisions under the Agricultural Development Act, 1939, and subsequently amended by the Agriculture (Miscellaneous War Provisions) Act, 1940, which also extended the oats subsidy to rye.

At the beginning of 1942, when the Lord President's Committee of the Cabinet were considering the revision of agricultural prices, they expressed a desire that Agricultural Departments should again review the possibility of meeting the extra cost of marginal production otherwise than through an increase in prices.

The problem had first arisen at the time of the earliest price review in the summer of 1940 when it had been suggested that the required increase in agricultural output might be obtained more effectively and more economically by grants (a) to specific types of production (b) for lands which were marginal because of low yields or high costs in respect of the production required from them in war-time and (c) for farms whose profits were more or less permanently marginal because of the uneconomic character of their size, lay-out or type of farming.

A Departmental Committee on Marginal Production was set up to consider the problem, and their report, which was accepted by the Lord President's Committee in June 1942, approved the principle of partial acreage payments for specific crops for which substantial acreage increases were required, and recommended such payments for wheat and flax in 1943 and the introduction of a scheme of grants for marginal farms. Such grants would take the form of the supply of part of the seeds, fertilisers, contract services, etc., needed for production.

Treasury approval was obtained for expenditure up to £1,000,000, to be allocated as follows:- England and Wales £675,000, Scotland £250,000 and Northern Ireland £75,000. In November 1942 the scope of the scheme was modified since the difficulties of marginal farmers on upland and hill farms would generally be met by the new hill sheep and hill cattle subsidy schemes for 1943. Other forms of marginal farming were covered by acreage payments for potatoes, wheat and rye.

The Agricultural Development Act, 1939, Part IV, provided for grants for ploughing up grassland in the United Kingdom during 1939, to bring the land into a state of cleanliness and fertility. These provisions were later extended to the ploughing up of land in any subsequent year falling wholly or partly within the war period, by the Agriculture (Miscellaneous War Provisions) Act, 1940, Part II.