FARMERS must take advantage of "revolutionary" agricultural reforms which pave the way to a more profitable and environmentally sustainable future for the countryside.

Lord Whitty, Food and Farming Minister, was speaking at the Oxford Farming Conference on Tuesday and said that the deal to reform the CAP had exceeded expectations, but to reap the rewards, the hard work had only just begun.

Ministers were considering a range of decisions which would set the framework for implementing the major CAP reforms, including options - historic, area flat-rate or hybrid basis - for allocating entitlements under the new Single Farm Payment scheme.

That decision was not clear cut, but decoupling in whatever form would achieve economic, environmental and development objectives.

"The challenge for farming is to take advantage of the opportunities created by CAP reform, the most radical in the 50 years of CAP," said Lord Whitty. "For the first time we achieved a revolutionary change by breaking the link between subsidy and production.

"The reform deal also shifted support towards wider rural, landscape and environmental objectives.

"It gave us a very significant degree of flexibility, and transformed the European Union from the most internally protectionist in the World Trade Organisation to being on the front foot in agriculture's contribution to trade liberalisation."

Lord Whitty said the new CAP provided a market-oriented and profitable European system of farming; a regional and social policy for transferring resources into rural areas and communities; an environmentally sensitive policy to protect and enhance Europe's landscapes, and facilitated fairer world trade in food and agriculture.

The Government had already announced that it would implement the new CAP Single Farm Payment from January 1, 2005, on a country-by-country basis, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland taking decisions according to local priorities.

Lord Whitty added that there would soon be Defra consultation on national envelopes and cross-compliance.

l The Tenant Farmers' Association has attacked organisations seeking to link new CAP payments to land ownership.

Reg Haydon, TFA national chairman, accused organisations seeking implementation on the land-based systems offered by the hybrid and Regional Average Payment options of doing so either to unnecessarily inflate land values through state support or to be paid compensation for something they had not had in the past.

"These attitudes are selfish, misguided and damaging to the industry" he said. "The reforms are about allowing the agricultural industry to face up to what for many will be harsh reality."

The reforms could offer a smooth transition but that could be achieved only if the Government chose the historic route, which had the clear support of the majority of farming organisations and their members.