THE Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has agreed to cut its budget by 30 per cent over the next four years.

Chancellor George Osborne announced Defra, the Treasury, the Transport and Local Government Departments had all agreed to make the cuts.

However, he said the cuts would be made from their "day to day" spending and not their main capital budgets.

Meurig Raymond, NFU president, was concerned that front line services should not be affected by the plans.

He said: "Our priority is for farming businesses to be productive and profitable and we are concerned that cuts up to 30 per cent could damage front line delivery services that underpin this aim.

"That is why we believe that Defra should first seek savings in 'back office' functions rather than reducing spending on areas that are key to our members such as animal health, flood protection and a fully functioning Rural Payments system."

However, he said the NFU does believe some services provided by agencies such as the Environment Agency could be delivered more cost-effectively by other providers.

Mr Raymond said: "We will now be looking to meet Ministers and officials as soon as possible to understand how this announcement will impact farmers and growers."