Currently Defra is allowed to allocate an additional €7,500 to farmers in a crisis situation. Should Defra wish to allocate more than this, it must ask for special permission from the EC.

The decision announced yesterday effectively means that Defra can now allocate €15,000 of its own money instead of the €7,500 in a crisis.

A spokesperson from Defra has said that this change, which will be in place until 31 December 2010, will allow them to have flexibility with regard to allocating crisis funding on individual cases.

The spokesperson said that it is important to remember that this funding must still fit in the Defra budget, as it is not a new scheme, and not a new pot of money.

It will be up to the regional agencies to decide on allocations through looking at individual cases. The spokesperson said the allocation of funding would not be a central decision from Defra, however she hoped that regional agencies would be able to allocate emergency funding to those in need in a relatively short space of time.

It is hoped further information will be released later in the week.

The scheme is open to farmers in all sub-sectors of primary agricultural production and provides aid in the form of direct grant, interest rate subsidy, loan with an aid element and guarantee.

The approved scheme is UK-wide, allowing aid to be granted at country, regional and local level and is applied in a decentralised way by all relevant aid awarding authorities.