Environment Correspondent Margaret Gilmore on the plight of hill farmers

The National Farmers Union says large areas of countryside could be turned into wasteland as hill farmers are forced out of business.

The report claims the future of hill farmers, their families and their communities is hanging perilously in the balance.

It reveals how incomes on cattle and sheep farms in upland areas of England and Wales have fallen by more than 60% in two years.

Call for government cash

Most Welsh hill farmers are struggling to keep their farms and families going on annual incomes of less than £10,000 a year.

The report predicts that the situation will get worse with the average income for all hill farmers next year dropping to £8,000 a year after tax

NFU President Ben Gill blames plummeting farm incomes and the falling price of crops and meat for what he calls the worst financial crisis to face hill farmers yet.

He warns the government must invest heavily or the hill farming industry will die and large areas of the countryside will be neglected.