BRITISH farming is suffering from mass confusion. Wholesale milk prices are due to rise by about five pence a litre but dairy farmers don't get higher rewards.

In the shops, milk sells at up to 75p a litre, but producers get only about 25p a litre. Similarly, livestock farmers are confused because their returns bear no comparison with the cost of meat in butchers' shops.

Meanwhile, the farmers' co-operative movement marches on with mergers which were once almost banned by Government in fear of farmer-monopolies emerging. Two farmer-owned co-ops that market grain, including crops from three West Country groups, are merging with Centaur to form Openfield. The new company could handle about four million tonnes of grain or 20 per cent of the UK market – produced by more than 7,000 farmers.

Grain growers are counting the cost of the harvest and trying to assess the impact on world trade and returns. UK wheat is selling at below £100 a tonne after an expensive harvest hit by wet weather.

Some reports confirm the massive increase in grain yields from more grain grown and generally favourable growing conditions across parts of the northern hemisphere.

France, Russia and Ukraine, particularly, had bumper harvests, but UK farmers, who normally produce high-quality grain for human food, will find their crops going into much lower value animal feed

In the background, the EU has plans to ban sprays, but the greater threat to human health – fake pesticides – increases while they argue.

The fakes are being sold in most European countries, according to a new report from the European Crop Protection Association. Between five and seven per cent of the European market has been hit by counterfeiting and, in some areas at least 25 per cent of products are fakes, mainly coming in from China. The report's authors claim politicians are not getting to grips with the problem.

In the UK, about two per cent of the sprays are fakes, compared with three per cent in Germany, eight to 10 per cent in Spain and 20 per cent in Ukraine.

Apparently, the EU has not assessed the impact of its new pesticide control proposals on farmers and food supply because it does not know which pesticides will be affected. The new legislation puts a ban on certain pesticides because they contain hazardous ingredients.

Currently, pesticides are judged on the basis of the risk they present to farmers, consumers and the environment. The ban could wipe off 85 per cent of current products from the market.

Because of shortages, inflation and the credit crisis, we should be concentrating on funding and rewarding farmers for producing more food instead of taking them for granted.