PART-TIME FARMERS.

• Position: Farmers may need income from other sources to compensate for low subsidies - Brief article

'I think we can expect to see an increase in part-time farmers,' said EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel in an interview published in the British daily newspaper, the Financial Times, on 30 December. She maintains that farmers will 'need additional income from non agricultural sources' in order to be able to cope with the lower subsidies. 'I think that we all know that there will be less money available [...] and we therefore need to have a discussion with member states and farmers about ways to adapt', she explained. Fischer Boel then invited the

European agriculture sector to reform itself to 'adapt' to the fall in subsidies which are currently around 43 billion per year.

Opposed to market interventions, Fischer Boel...