asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food why, as production of milk exceeds market requirements, payments are still authorised under the Small Farmer's Scheme for improvements which involve increased production of milk.

The object of the Scheme is to increase the efficiency of small farm businesses and to enable the farmer to produce more cheaply. The increased output of milk from these farms is not in fact large in relation to the total supplies from all farms. What is more important is the general reduction in unit costs of production of all commodities.