Farmers meet to hear the future - and CAP reform tops agenda future of farming

More than 500 delegates from throughout the UK are gathering at Oxford University this morning for the two-day Oxford Farming Conference.

Oxford is the farming industry's most prestigious conference and has kicked off the farming year since the 1930s. Uniquely, it is a conference that attracts a large number of farmers - unlike most farming conferences which are generally populated by professional conference-goers, such as agricultural consultants, bankers, accountants, lawyers, politicians and representatives from public bodies and the agricultural supply trade.

Oxford has the well-earned reputation for setting the political agenda for the rest of the farming year. This year will be no exception as the opening shots are fired in the debate on the future of the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy after 2012, when the present regime is due to end. The conference will plunge into the debate today with an opening speech from the UK Secretary of State for Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, Caroline Spelman, who will put the case for a strong and competitive food and farming sector.

She will be followed by Scottish MEP George Lyon, a former NFU Scotland president, who has the important role of "rapporteur" on the European Parliament's agricultural committee with the job of conveying the committee's views to the parliament.

But delegates will have to wait for the last speaker tomorrow afternoon to shed any real light on the likely outcome of the debate when EU agricultural commissioner Dacian Ciolos addresses the conference.

The commission has already issued a consultative document on its initial thoughts which, although somewhat vague and woolly, does make it clear that the emphasis of future support is likely to be away from direct income support for farmers and towards a focus on environment and climate change.

There are those who suggest this is a clever ploy by Ciolos to garner public support for retaining the CAP budget at or near its present level, which will be absolutely crucial as it will have to be spread more thinly throughout the enlarged EU to support new member states.

Ciolos has made it clear he wants to see a greener, fairer, more efficient and more effective CAP.

"The CAP is not just for farmers, it is for all EU citizens as consumers and taxpayers," he said at the launch of the discussion paper in November.

"It is important that we design our policy in a way which is more understandable to the general public and makes clear the public benefits which farmers provide to society as a whole. European agriculture needs to be not only economically competitive but also environmentally competitive."Farmers will welcome the commitment to ensure that support is better targeted to active farmers and the clear statement that the Single Farm Payment can no longer be based on a historic reference period as it is at present.

But they will be disappointed in the lack of emphasis on food production amid a burgeoning world population. And Ciolos can expect flak for reviving an old chestnut - that support for individual farms should be capped.

This would particularly disadvantage the UK with its large farms.