Vital for Northern Ireland farmers that Westminster 'allocate emergency funding as a matter of the utmost urgency'

In a major statement on behalf of the UUP association, the East Londonderry Chairman Robert Carmichael warned about the “dire consequences for Ulster farming” if the Government did not provide much-needed cash aid for the hard-pressed agricultural sector.

Mr Carmichael said: “The Government simply cannot merely dismiss the tractor blockades by the farming community as an inconvenient irritation.

“They are a last-ditch attempt by our farmers to get the Government to take concerns seriously that unless the agricultural community gets the necessary funding it requires, many farms could go out of business.

“There is a saying that a dripping tap will eventually fill a bath.

"That is the nightmare scenario many farmers are now facing financially - only it’s not water that tap is dripping; its unnecessary taxation.

"The reality is that many farms are strained financially to breaking point.

“If the Government does not provide the required funding to save our farming industry, the countryside could be littered with derelict farm buildings and farm land left unusable or difficult to cultivate because there is no cash to sustain them.

"In these circumstances, many farmers could find themselves living on unemployment benefit".

He added in the long term, “this scenario could have a detrimental effect on the food supply chain”.

"It stands to reason that if farmers cannot afford to maintain their farms, then products could become either scarce or non-existent on our shop shelves as there will be no farms to supply those products.

“Put bluntly, the Government really needs to take its head out of the Westminster sand and recognise what is happening financially on the ground, not just in our East Londonderry constituency, but right across the Province.

“The longer Westminster leaves the situation, the worse the scenario will become.

"It must act with haste - and no excuses - if farming is to have a sustainable long term future in Ulster,” added Mr Carmichael.