CHANGES to agricultural subsidies which would pay English farmers to look after the landscape rather than produce ever more food are being considered by Agriculture Minister Nick Brown, it was confirmed today.

Among the recommendations made by the Ministry of Agriculture's (Maff) Hill Farm Taskforce are subsidies for landowners to promote hunting, shooting and fishing on their land, The Times reported.

Proposals

But a Maff spokesman stressed that these were only a small part of the proposals under consideration, none of which had yet received final approval from Mr Brown.

The spokesman said: "Nick Brown has made no secret of the fact that he would like to see a swing towards paying farmers and landowners for stewardship of the land rather than production."

The Government set up three taskforces in December last year to come up with fresh ideas for reform of the hill-farming system, milk production and supplies to farms in England.

The spokesman said: "Their brief was to talk to industry and farmers and develop recommendations for how things might be improved to farmers' benefit.''