THERE are welcome signs that some good may yet come out of the appalling foot-and-mouth crisis, when it is finally over.

Although when that day arrives seems increasingly remote.

Much of the blame for the spread of the disease has been rightly laid at the door of modern, industrialised farming practices, forced on farmers by the Common Agricultural Policy, itself under threat as governments wake up to its dangers.

It is now proposed that Cumbria may be used as a pilot area for reversing these trends.

As the worst affected county and with so many of the farmers having their livestock slaughtered, this area seems t o be ideally placed to lead a rethink.

Already there are plenty of farmers in the region who have embraced a more enlightened view of their industry' s future and majored on specialist foods, environmental projects and direct marketing of their products.

It is time this trend was encouraged by the subsidy systems.

It is proposed that restocking would be an ideal time to experiment with new payments that would actively encourage farmers to adopt less intensive and more environmentally-sound practices.

It would involve scrapping existing CAP subsidies that reward farmers for the number of stock they own.

Certainly it would seem to be a lost opportunity to carry on with the same discredited payments, which would only force farmers to rebuild in the shape of what has gone wrong before.

Understandably, the National Farmers' Union is concerned that a compulsory redistribution of subsidies would create winners and losers within the industry and would be divisive at a sensitive time.

There are farming families who have already resigned themselves to giving up.

The Government needs to make sure that any changes to payments are managed in a way that gives those that remain encouragement that their way of life has a future.

However, the proposals from the Cumbria foot-and-mouth taskforce deserves urgent attention at national level.

In the meantime, the countryside as a whole, faces an even tougher few months as the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs strives to contain the disease.

Its strangely low-key announcement of a super security zone around most of the North of England has serious implications for the future financial viability of farms which have so far escaped the full impact of the crisis, as well as for animal welfare.

It can only be hoped that such draconian measures will help speed an end to this ghastly episode in agriculture's history.