Leaving the European Union would allow Britain to "take control" and cut red tape for farmers, a Defra minister has said.

Minister of state for farming, food and the marine environment George Eustice, who is backing the Vote Leave campaign, argued farming would still be supported "to the same level, possibly even more than now," in the event of a Brexit.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I think the crucial thing for farmers is if we were to leave the EU and take control we would be able to get rid of the very complex bureaucratic system of cross compliance regulations that we have now, lots of pointless administration would go, we would reduce the regulatory burdens on farmers.

"We'd be able to put in place far more coherent policy making, so that we could support farmers in the right way and we could help farmers mitigate risk, we could help support science and technology to improve (competitiveness)."

On subsidies, he added: "We would still support farming to the same level, possibly even more than now, some of those countries that are outside the EU support their farmers to a greater extent financially, but we might support farming differently."

Mr Eustice argued farmers he had met did not like just being given a subsidy every year, adding if support could be given to help them earn their profit from the market "they would be happier with that".

He said: "At the moment we only get half of the money back that we send to the EU."

Mr Eustice added: "What I am saying is we could possibly spend that money better rather than just giving huge amounts of money to very large land owners, we could actually support science and technology so that we saw real steps forward in farming."

His comments came after a report published on the impact of Brexit for farmers suggested leaving the EU could push up food prices for British consumers or damage farming incomes.

In two of three scenarios modelled in a study for the National Farmers' Union (NFU), farm-gate prices could increase, boosting farming incomes but reducing consumption of products as they become more expensive.

In the third, a more liberalised trade approach would see farm-gate prices fall, benefiting consumers through lower prices but hitting farmers' incomes in many sectors, the report by Dutch university Wageningen said.

Mr Eustice said: "Well, actually, I think if you look at the most realistic and most plausible scenario here which is a free trade agreement between the EU and UK, what it really shows is there may be a firming of prices, farm-gate prices for farmers, but not drastically so, and you would keep in place the financial support that we have for farming today now, and that actually farming might be in a slightly better position than it was."

Mr Eustice said food prices were governed by changes in energy prices, by weather, global changes in supply and demand, plus exchange rates.

These were global phenomena, he said, adding "they won't be affected by whether or not we are in or out of the EU".