SIR, – I read the article, re CAP rich list, with interest.
As a small-scale beef and sheep farmer with 50 ha in North-east Scotland receiving just over £5500 under the single payment scheme this past year, I find it amazing that ‘farmers’ can receive in the top case nearly £3m.
I realise it is not illegal to manipulate the system to this extent, although all it does is ‘tar us all with the same brush’, as well subsidised farmers which the headline figures in the article illustrate. 
Later on is the statement: “The top 100 recipients were paid more than the bottom 55,000” – these later figures were not in the article I read in the daily paper during the week, surprisingly enough.
Can I suggest a simple solution in that the basic payment is capped at say £400,000. After all, the big businesses are always telling us how much more efficient they are than the rest of us, they surely do not need all this extra subsidy and those who are manipulating the system will find it less worthwhile to do so. 
If they find it unprofitable to farm an area without a payment it can be let to other smaller farmers or, better still, young farmers, as long as the STFA does not completely wreck the tenanted sector with its stupid demands and receive an enhanced rent due to the tenant receiving the basic payment.
The money over this cap level – and on the figures for the top 100 in the article, that will be £21m – can then be put back into the pot to top up the new entrants scheme and fund environmental schemes where it will at least do some good.

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