Farmers to receive an extra £2m

Alun Michael: "It will help many in rural areas"

The government is to give farmers and their families who have suffered as a result of the restrictions on livestock movement imposed due to the foot-and-mouth epidemic an extra £2m.

Between March and September, the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs paid out more than £13m to support charities working with affected farmers.

And the additional £2m will match private donations to charities received between 1 October and 1 January, according to Rural Affairs Minister, Alun Michael.

He said the money would help those referred to as "locked-up farmers" in Lord Haskins' report - Rural Recovery after Foot and Mouth Disease - to "avoid animal welfare problems over winter".

"It will help many in rural areas, including the group of farmers identified by Lord Haskins as most in need of additional help," Mr Michael told the Plunkett Foundation's Social Enterprise in Rural Areas Conference in Shrewsbury

The Plunkett Foundation is an international agency that promotes the development of group enterprise in rural areas.

On 18 October the Environment Secretary, Margaret Beckett, announced a £24m extension to government's business recovery fund for the worst affected regions.

But in his report - published the same day - Lord Haskins had called for an extra £40m to be put into the fund and special short-term compensation to be considered for farmers unable to sell their livestock outside their local areas.