THE Government was today accused of cutting off a lifeline for the Ribble Valley's beleaguered farming industry at the height of the foot and mouth crisis.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has refused to continue funding the Bowland Initiative -- a national pilot programme hailed as an answer to rural diversification.

The decision was branded 'absurd' by John Welbank, project manager of the Clitheroe-based Bowland Initiative, which has been working with farmers for the past two and a half years to set up new businesses.

And Ribble Valley MP Nigel Evans, has promised to raise what he described as 'a ludicrous' decision with DEFRA Secretary Margaret Beckett.

"I am deeply saddened," he said. "Farmers raised the question of the Bowland Initiative with Margaret Beckett when she came to Gisburn.

"She clearly either misunderstood, or simply doesn't care. The Government is further hitting farming in the Ribble Valley with this ludicrous decision."

Mr Welbank said DEFRA had ignored pleas to continue the pilot programme, which officially came to an end on June 30.

Thanks to funding from Lancashire County Council, district councils and agencies like English Nature, he said the programme would continue for the next six months.

"DEFRA's decision to pull the plug is simply absurd," said Mr Welbank. "We have the largest outbreak of foot and mouth in the country after Cumbria and yet the Government refuses to back an initiative that has already proved itself. "We have a team of people up and running on the ground who understand the issues surrounding rural development .

"How DEFRA can fail to recognise the fact that we the expertise to work with farmers hit by foot and mouth is beyond belief."

The Bowland Initiative was set up in 1999 to look at ways of diversifying the rural economy. With an annual budget of £200,000, a nine-strong team was established to work with farmers to explore alternative income streams.

Project workers helped farmers cut through bureaucracy with planning and grant applications and provided specialist help in areas such as marketing. The initiative has been hailed as a model for rural diversification in a series of Government reports.

The National Farmers Union has been working closely with the Bowland Initiative. North West policy officer Rodney Bacon said the whole project had demonstrated there was a clear role to play for the practical support it offered to farmers.

"The scheme is deserving of further funding," he said. "It is quite apparent that farmers cannot just ignore issues such as falling farm incomes.

"They have to address the situation and that was where they were helped by the Bowland Initiative. I am sure we shall see the benefits of its work for years to come."

A spokesman for DEFRA said the Government was very sympathetic to the Bowland Initiative and was considering extending the scheme until the end of the year.

"DEFRA has been in touch with the initiative and has given advice on the possibilities available to them," he said. "An evaluation of the Bowland Initiative has been commissioned.

"It could be a new beginning rather than the end," he added.