Rural Economy Secretary Fergus Ewing yesterday issued a plea to the farming industry to take advantage of the Government’s subsidy cash advance loan scheme.
The £300million scheme was launched earlier this year to pay farmers and crofters 80% of eligible Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) and greening payments in the first two weeks of November.
It follows a similar £200million scheme launched in spring this year after the Government’s new £178million farm payments IT system buckled under pressure and struggled to process applications.
The first batch of loan payments for the latest scheme, totalling just under £246million, went out to almost 12,000 farmers and crofters on Friday November 4.
Around 5,000 producers have not signed up to the scheme and Mr Ewing yesterday urged them to reconsider the loan offer and apply for the funds as soon as possible.
Mr Ewing said: “There is absolutely no reason not to apply for this payment. I would urge all farmers who have not done so to do so as quickly as possible.”
He said it was “extremely unlikely” that farmers would be charged interest on the loans and this would only occur in instances if they were late paying back any overpayments through the loan scheme.
Mr Ewing, who failed to take part in NFU Scotland’s political debate at yesterday’s event due to prior arrangements to speak at the Cruise Line Conference, said payments for the remaining 20% of funds would begin in the New Year.
He said it was hoped all funds would be paid to all producers by the end of June 2017.
“There remains work to be done for the IT fixes – this is not an easy process,” added Mr Ewing.
“We are reasonably confident that the assurances we receive from the contractors allow us to reach the conclusion that next year will not be a repeat of last year. This [paying farm payments] remains my priority because it is not yet fully resolved.”