SUPER-FAST broadband is needed to help hard-pressed hill farmers, a new report has said.

The Commons environment committee report has called on the government to fund high-speed internet connections in remote areas claiming they would be a vital business tool for farmers.

The report suggests that the majority of paperwork that farmers have to get through could be completed online, saving time.

The Country Land and Business Association has long been pressing the government for faster broadband.

“The uplands really depend on it,” said CLA’s Regional Director Douglas Chalmers.

“There are more and more benefits to be gained from using the internet, whether that’s administration, tax returns, cattle returns or just running the business.”

Mr Chalmers said there were social merits to be gained too, including the potential for farmers to use the internet to network with each other and do business online.

“All these hill farmers have families and what we are finding is that farmers feel socially-excluded because so much of their work depends on the internet.

"It’s about keeping up with the rest of the world,” he added.

“DEFRA (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs), and other government agencies, seem to insist on communicating with us by the internet but a large amount of the people they are trying to talk to don’t have it.”

The report recommends that the Government provides money to install cables that provide internet connections of at least 20 megabits per second to the most remote places.

Robert Craig, Cumbria County Chairman for the National Farmers Union, said internet files were taking 20 minutes to download before he started accessing broadband six years ago.

“We are very fortunate here because we are right beside a telephone exchange and we take it for granted,” said Mr Craig.

“To be without it now would be quite a disadvantage.”

The dairy farmer said that DERFA was encouraging farmers to complete paperwork online.

“Broadband simplifies things a lot because we can make errors on most of the forms we fill in but the online ones tell you when you have made a mistake.

"It’s very important and you may be don’t realise how important until you get it.”

In the Coalition’s spending review last year, Cumbria was selected as one of a number of areas to pilot a high-speed internet connection.

No firm date has been set but it is expected to launch later this year.