I hope that this first session,which I've called Al Introduction to British Agriculture,will provide a helpful background to the farm visits you'll be doing next week.

I think I should start by emphasising that agriculture still accounts for a very important part of this country s economy.We are used to hearing the UK's socitey and economy described as being 'industrial'or even 'post-industrial',but we mustn't let this blind us to the fact that agriculture and its supporting industries still account for around 20% of our Gross National Product.

This figure is especially impressive,I think,when you bear in mind how very small a percentage of the UK workforce is employed in agriculture.This is not a recent development - you would have to go back to 1750 or so to find a majority of the workforce in this country working in agriculture.By the middle of the next century,in 1850 that is,it had fallen sharply to 10%,and then to 3% by the middle of the twentieth century.