Scottish Government has been accused of doing nothing to prepare for the dawn of a new era of agricultural policy once the UK leaves Europe next year.
Farmers and opposition politicians launched a scathing attack on government at an NFU Scotland (NFUS) meeting at Philip Sleigh’s Netherton of Mounie Farm, near Oldmeldrum, yesterday.
NFUS regional chairman for the north-east, Davie Winton, said: “You cannot turn farming on and off. We want to see a system in place so we can make plans.”
Tom Johnston, of Cottown Farm, Drumblade, Huntly, said: “I’m disappointed because there’s no indication at all of where we are going.
“Politicians need to forget point-scoring. We need to work together.”
Scottish Conservatives Shadow Rural Economy Secretary, Peter Chapman MSP, said the Scottish Government was behind its counterparts in Westminster in terms of developing, and consulting on, new policy plans.
He said: “We are looking at a complete vacuum in Scotland.
“We have no idea of the future of Scottish agricultural policy and we desperately need some kind of a lead.”
He said he had submitted a Freedom of Information request to government asking what was being done behind the scenes to develop new agricultural policy, to which he received the response “nothing”.
However, SNP MSP Gillian Martin said government was not sitting doing nothing, but instead taking advice from industry.
She said: “The Scottish Government is effectively taking advice from key stakeholders on this before we release information.
“It’s not really true to say we are not doing anything because we are doing it in a bottom-up way rather than from the top.”
She said government was waiting to see a final report from its four agricultural champions, which is due to be published in the next few weeks, and the final report from the national council of rural advisors, due in the summer, before formulating its plans.
Fellow SNP MSP Stewart Stevenson said Defra had not yet produced a detailed plan.
He said: “They have not yet published anything that enables us to see what is going on. And blatantly it’s hard to nail it down until we have a sense of how much money is going to be available.”
Conservative MP Colin Clark said Defra Secretary Michael Gove had given assurances of continued funding until 2022 and it was now down to the Scottish Government to release details of how it planned to spend the cash in Scotland.
He said: “There will not be a Defra-centric top down policy forced upon Scotland.”