THE mid-term CAP review agreement continued to receive a mixed reaction this week.

The general idea of getting away from production-based payments was welcomed, but there was widespread concern about Britain introducing the system in 2005, ahead of others.

Several organisations said it would be vital to ensure that delays by other member states dod not distort trade and put UK farmers at a disadvantage.

Sir Edward Greenwell, Country Land and Business Association president, said they had argued for payments to be decoupled from production for many years: "But this introduction of optional partial decoupling dilutes and delays these benefits."

The CLA wanted to know if arrangements for the 2005 start date for the national entry level stewardship scheme would be adequate.

Sir Edward said the short-term position of both tenants and landlords, and all those who had bought or sold land since 2000, remained deeply uncertain.

He was concerned that CLA advice that payments should be linked to land had been ignored - but the Tenant Farmers' Association was delighted.

The review allows decoupled payment entitlements to be transferred without land and Reg Haydon, TFA national chairman, said they had always lobbied for that.

The initial EU Commission proposals would have seen the new entitlements attached to land.

"In our view that would have been a disaster for farm tenants," said Mr Haydon. "We could foresee the problems of milk quota starting all over again, only ten times worse."

The National Beef Association welcomed the January 2005 start date for the CAP reform. It would stabilise this autumn's store cattle market, secure dairy beef calf prices for at least another 12 months, and give industry a chance to install the new support systems carefully, rather than in a headlong rush.

The extension of both BSPS and slaughter premium into 2004 would help finishers maintain their income.

The NBA would urge the Government to use as much decoupled support as possible.

The Royal Association of British Dairy Farmers advised milk producers to start planning their strategy immediately and was rushing through an advisory document on the implications of the reforms.

"If producers bury their heads in the sand for another two to three years they won't have time to adjust to the new environment of single payment susbidies," said Tim Brigstocke, RABDF chairman.

The Royal Agricultural Society of England said the UK Government must guard against an over-eager adoption of the reforms while other member states, such as France, adopted a more lax approach.

"There is a danger now that, as the CAP is increasingly devolved to member states, it becomes fragmented and unco-ordinated, in other words not 'common'."