THE finger of blame has been pointed firmly at MAFF for the "fiasco" surrounding the new Hill Farming Allowance Scheme.

The Tenant Farmers' Association says the new arrangements announced by the Ministry will be a blow to traditional family hill farms.

Mr George Dunn, TFA chief executive, said it was tempting to blame the European Commission, given its stubborn line on area payments. "However, the real damage was done during the negotiations on Agenda 2000 reforms when the UK government did little to argue for the maintenance of headage payments and allowed area payments to be agreed without debate," he said.

MAFF has attempted to minimise the number of losers with a payment safety net but, Mr Dunn said, there would still be many farms whose income would decline. In the main they would be traditional family farms with reasonable levels of stocking, which could ill afford such a blow.

"The TFA is also very concerned about tenant farmers and the impact on their balance sheets if the value of farm stock falls as a consequence," said Mr Dunn. Rental values should not change as, on average, the earning capacity of the land would not have altered.

The TFA was now concerned that the EC was planning to review the sheep meat regime, left out of the Agenda 2000 reforms, he said, adding: "We have already put on record with the government our hope that it will be more robust in those negotiations to see off any further moves towards area payments in the livestock sector," he said.