BBC Wales's agriculture correspondent Gaina Morgan reports from Welshpool

The stark warning about the payments - currently worth £27m to Wales - came during a visit to mid-Wales by a committee from one of the nation's two farming unions.

During a visit to the hills above Welshpool in mid Wales, National Farmers' Union spokesman Peter Allen warned that the industry was facing "melt down".

National Farmers' Union chief Peter Allen

He said an exodus from the hills would leave vast areas un-farmed with catastrophic implications for the environment.

"A lot of farmers can roll down off the hills, unlike farmers further down on the lowlands," he said.

"There's very few that come up the other way and if we lose these people who farm up here - we've lost them forever."

The concern is due to Europe's planned redistribution of the special support paid to farmers in the hills.