THE publication of the Curry report today is a chance for farmers to put the dark days behind them and look to a more rewarding and prosperous future.

From the 1980s, British agriculture has been cursed. Mad cow disease, various other food scares, the high pound, floods and foot and mouth combined to wreck the industry.

Throughout these miserable times, there was a general acceptance in government that something should be done. Little was.

But the foot and mouth disaster added new urgency to the quest for agricultural reform. It was in the midst of the crisis, back in August, that Tony Blair asked a group of farmers, food industrialists and supermarket bosses to consider what could be done. The resulting report by the Policy Commission on the Future of Farming and Food, chaired by Sir Donald Curry, is the most significant in years.

It proposes nothing less than a farming revolution. Although the report is hugely detailed, with more than 100 recommendations, at its heart is a straightforward economic strategy.

Instead of the taxpayer subsidising farmers to maximise production, the money should be diverted to pay for better quality food, grown in an environmentally-friendly way.

Farmers tend to be cynical about Whitehall reports, often with good reason. But if they simply dismiss these findings out of hand, they will further alienate themselves from the British public.

The status quo is certainly not an option. The current system fails British farmers, whose average income in the year to February 2001 was just £5,200; it fails families, who pay on average £16 a week to the European Common Agricultural Policy (CAP); and it is failing the environment.

The authors of the report admit that an overhaul of the much-derided CAP is necessary to fully realise their vision. But, they say, Britain can now begin the shift to greener farms producing better food.

Nothing short of a radical, fresh start can revitalise farming and consumer confidence.

Updated: 10:45 Tuesday, January 29, 2002