MULTI-millionaires, some living in Britain, Hong Kong and Saudi Arabia, are rorting the US farm subsidy scheme.

The US audit watchdog, the Government Accountability Office, found $49 million was paid to 2702 ineligible individuals whose income exceeded $2.5 million.

    Its report said:
  • Most of the 2702 ineligible individuals resided in or near metropolitan areas, not rural areas.
  • Nine residents of Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia and Britain had received subsidies, with one receiving more than $80,000 from 2003 to 2006.
  • About $700,000 was paid to individuals who claimed they were engaged in daily on-farm management, yet lived "several hundred miles from the farming operation".
  • An insurance executive received more than $300,000 across 2003-05.
  • The owner of a professional sports franchise received more than $200,000 from 2003 to 2006.
  • A top finance executive received more than $60,000 in 2003 and a technology executive more than $900,000.

The analysis shows that in the four years from 2003 to 2006 US farmers received $63.8 billion.

US lobby groups have been calling for reforms of the scheme.

The Environmental Working Group has compiled a database from the figures that shows just how few farmers receive most subsidy payments.

The group found 60 per cent of the $5 billion in direct subsidy payments last year went to just 10 per cent of the nation's 1.4 million farmers.

Direct payments are only part of the subsidy program. Billions more are paid out each year in the form of bioenergy, counter-cyclical, crop disaster and marketing and environmental subsidies.

EWG president Ken Cook said smaller farmers were missing out, while the largest and wealthiest were getting the greatest subsidies.

The Washington Post last year reported that Tyler Farms in Arkansas had collected $37 million from 1996-2006 by dividing itself into 66 legally separate corporations.

The newspaper found other farmers evade payment limits by signing up family members.

One Georgia farmer reportedly collected thousands in extra subsidies by listing his two-year-old daughter as a co-farmer.