UNCERTAINTY continues to demoralise British agriculture, the tenant farmers' leader said this week.

Reg Haydon, addressing the Tenant Farmers' Association annual meeting in London on Tuesday, said the uncertainty that dogged the industry in 2002 was continuing.

"There was uncertainty over whether or not the country was indeed free of foot-and-mouth disease," he said. "There was uncertainly about the future of the country's livestock industry, including whether or not livestock markets would be able to operate profitably again.

"There was, and continues to be, uncertainty about the future for the CAP. More importantly, there was major uncertainly over the survival of many farm businesses."

He also said that some burdens on the industry were all too familiar.

"The low prices experienced across all commodity sectors continued for a further year," he said. "The increase in the burden of red tape and regulation continued its incessant, upward trend. The apparent lack of understanding within the corridors of power of the practicalities of running farms continued to hamper discussions on policy areas like disease control, nitrates and bovine TB.

"Many tenants also continued to face the resistance of their landlords towards reasonable and justifiable reductions in rents," he said.

Mr Haydon referred to the struggle to get changes to the 20-day standstill; the paucity of Defra's response to the report of Sir Don Curry's Policy Commission; Government failure to deliver the promised retirement scheme and, on a brighter note, movement towards changes in tenancy legislation following lobbying by the TFA.

That had led to the Government establishing the Tenancy Reform Industry Group to consider a range of legislative, fiscal and procedural changes that will improve the position of the tenanted sector