Britain's largest cereal farmers are facing cuts in their European Union agricultural subsidies totalling £62 million, according to today's Telegraph.

The European Commission will next month announce reforms of the Common Agricultural Policy.

Franz Fischler, the agriculture commissioner, has produced proposals which would limit direct payments of EU aid to £185,000 for each holding.

Forum Response: Royal Agricultural Society

Angela Lea, head of policy and information at the Royal Agricultural Society, told ePolitix.com: "Farmers have to run efficient and profitable businesses regardless of the acreage they farm. Penalising large farms is just not sensible.

"If this proposal really is part of the strategic shift from farm subsidies to community development it risks fossilising our farms and discriminating against the most efficient."

Forum Response: Countryside Alliance

Richard Burge, chief executive of the Countryside Alliance, told ePolitix.com: "We have been campaigning for some time for a reform of the CAP, which this proposal certainly advocates.

"While the NFU is not in agreement with the move, we believe it will have a positive long term effect as it will free up money which can then fund modulation (ie farm subsidies are based on land management, conservation and stewardship as much as on yield). This green future for farming is far preferable to the intensive agricultural practices of the last hundred or so years.

"In essence, this short term dip in subsidy for cereal farmers will even out once modulation projects get under way, which will be beneficial for agriculture as an industry as well as for the long-term future health of the countryside".