THE PACKAGE that emerged in Brussels this week was a classic curate's egg, in that it was good in parts.

However, opportunities were missed to take steps that would really have had a big impact for hard pressed farmers. Top of the list would have been the elimination of duties on fertiliser imports, which force EU prices well above world levels.

This would have delivered an immediate €1bn cash flow boost to farmers, but while France was to the fore in fighting for aid for dairy farmers, it also opposed moves to trim the protection its fertiliser manufacturers enjoy at farmers' expense.

Forecasts about what would come out of the meeting proved reasonably accurate. The farm commissioner, Phil Hogan, has indeed put the ball back into member states' court, by raising to €15,000 a year the amount farmers can receive without breaking state aid rules.

This is a clever ploy, since it is effectively saying to member states that if they are as convinced of the need for action, they can help farmers without falling foul of the European Commission.

The Irish have already said they will do so. Such generosity from the UK government is unlikely - but at least the commission can say that is their decision and not the fault of Brussels.

The meat market observatory, modelled on the milk market observatory to improve market transparency, was always going to emerge and it is not up to farm lobby organisations to make this as effective as possible.

This is a key part of the long term drive to tackle volatility by ensuring farmers and others have as much market information as possible.

Information will not solve the problem of volatility, but it will make the steps needed to tackle it more obvious.

On marketing, the decision to double the amount of butter and skim milk powder that can go into intervention is welcome, although there was no commitment to review the price.

Equally welcome was a commitment to make more private storage available for pigmeat. Both were predictable, but it is difficult to see them achieving more than preventing things getting worse.

One of the headlines is that the commission will allow producer organisations and co-ops to enter into temporary arrangements to cut milk production. This came with an iron commitment from ministers and the commission that there would be no return of milk quotas.

This looks sensible, but in reality it is unlikely to have an impact. It is voluntary and as quickly as some producers or member states cut production, others will increase it.

There is also a big question mark over whether there will be any compensation funding available. The commission suggestion is that member states could pay this out of the financial aid package agreed last September, which many have not yet distributed.

They could also, with no state aid concerns, use their own funds for a compensation scheme. This is a far cry from the new supply management arrangements France wanted, and it is more about face-saving than something likely to have an impact on dairy prices.

This does not mean the supply problem in milk does not need to be tackled, but that is a long-term goal.

The commission needs to come up with fresh thinking about how to match supply and demand. The production cut scheme, with all its flaws, is at least recognition there is a problem.

Also in the mix is the possibility of some form of export credit for dairy products and pigmeat. It will take some time for the detail to emerge, but time is not something farmers have, given the scale of the industry crisis.

It also needs to accelerate the debate on how the European Investment Bank could become more involved in funding arrangements that would link repayments to the state of the market - but that is more long-term than even the export credit programme.

There were no big surprises in the package that emerged from Brussels. There is a lot of smoke and mirrors on the dairy supply reduction programme. Other parts, led by dairy intervention and pigmeat storage, are probably good enough to take the pressure off Brussels for now.

However, the crisis in agriculture is as far from being solved as it was before the meeting began. The real challenge remains a better long-term alignment of supply and demand.