The deepening crisis affecting farming in this region is forcing more than 300 people a month to quit the industry.

More than 60,000 farmers and farm workers have left the profession nationwide over the past three years.

In the North-East and North Yorkshire alone, 3,624 landowners, tenant farmers and their employees decided to call time on generations of family toil in the past year.

The National Farmers' Union (NFU) last night described the mass migration as a "massive concern".

The true extent of the fallout of challenging economic conditions - including the foot-and-mouth devastation - was highlighted by land agents who are inundated with farms to sell that no-one wants to buy.

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors' (RICS) policy unit published figures showing that availability of farmland and buildings had risen sharply since early last year, while demand had plummeted from the start of this year.

The RICS said sales and inquiries for farms was down a net 25 per cent in the third quarter of the year, while availability was up a net 50 per cent for the same period.

Rob Simpson, NFU North-East spokesman, said there was a net loss to farming of approximately 302 more farmers and farm workers across the North-East and North Yorkshire every month. "Hundreds of that number will be farmers," he said.

"It is particularly stark for sons and daughters of farmers who would normally come into the industry. It is a different industry at the moment to come into.

"That is not to say that there are not opportunities because there are, particularly the move to sourcing food more locally and the trend in the country at large of people, who want to know where their food comes from."

The increase of farmers' markets, from the first held in Bath in 1997 to today's 450 fortnightly or monthly events, has gone some way to applying the brakes to the industry's decline.

Mr Simpson said: "It is a massive concern. Organisations like ourselves will do everything possible to counter that.

"There will also be an environmental impact.

"Every farmer or farm worker who leaves is one less person to tend and care for the dry-stone walls and the hedges."