More agricultural land is coming onto the market, but Essex farmers are fighting back against a tide of non-agricultural wealth buying up homes and land in the county, it was reported this week.

"With more and more of these non-agricultural buyers, often happy to take whatever land comes with the house, local farmers find themselves priced out of the market," a spokesman for farm agents Strutt and Parker said this week.

The latest edition of Farmland Review published by Strutt and Parker shows that prices of agricultural land fell by only a little over the last year, and comments that given the fall in agricultural income, that was extraordinary.

It also tells of cases where local farmers are forming consortiums to purchase entire farms that come on the market, and then sell on the farmhouses to London buyers.

Tim Fagan, of the company's Chelmsford office, points out that generally the chance of land next to an existing farm becoming available is rare - about once in every 40 or 50 years.

He acknowledges that there are exceptions when farmers have been lucky enough to buy good land next to their own farms.

"When it does become available the last thing farmers want to do is compete unduly with those looking primarily at the farmhouse, but willing to take whatever land they have in order to acquire the house," he said.

He said there was always some risk in farmers being forced to buy the entire farm, though where the market remains strong there is a chance of making a profit.

Mr Fagan is predicting a rise in the change of acreage taking place this year in Essex. "I have already reported on three farms and know of two others coming onto the market, whereas last year I knew of nothing scheduled for the market until March," he said.

He urges sellers of farmland to listen to the advice of their land agents, and points out that in recent weeks wheat prices have risen significantly.

"Even an extra £10 a tonne can make the difference between profit and loss for many farmers - a boost in optimism within the industry would not go amiss," he added.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.