Intervention measures by the state can be grouped under four headings: demand increasing (e.g. domestic food subsidy, intervention buying, export subsidy and food aid); supply reducing (production quota, co-responsibility levy and land set-aside); cost reducing (input subsidy, restructuring grant, farmer retirement grant and farm management grant); and income supporting (deficiency payment, headage payment and direct income support). Measures in the first group have been widely developed by governments and have become most costly. How to Write Good College Essays? Effective suggestions on writing homework by writers! Under more recent policy revisions, especially in the EU, price levels for intervention buying and export subsidies have been substantially reduced and greater emphasis has been placed on direct income supports, land retirement (set-aside) and production quotas.The agricultural effects of state intervention can be summarized in the following ways. Farmers have been encouraged to intensify and specialize their farming systems with marked gains in production efficiency but damaging consequences for the environment. The latter include the pollution of water and air, increased rates of soil erosion, the loss of habitat (wetlands, moorlands, woodlands), and the reduction in variety of flora and fauna. Agriculture has become polarized between a relatively few large farms producing most of the agricultural output, and a large number of small farms whose occupiers increasingly have to supplement their incomes with off-farm work. The income objective has been reached for only the occupiers of the larger farms. Food supplies have been maintained and stabilized for consumers. The farm population has been reduced with a minimum of disruption to society as a whole.
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