Scots farm minister Richard Lochhead and his UK Government counterpart George Eustice were at loggerheads over Scottish independence and agriculture at a heated debate in Dingwall Mart on Wednesday.
Each joined by representatives from the Yes and Rural Better Together campaigns, both ministers argued the cases for and against Scottish independence.
A key focus of the debate, and the hot topic at the forefront of every farmer’s mind at the moment, was Common Agricultural Policy and whether or not an independent Scotland would retain access to this as a result of being allowed into Europe, as well as the currency in an independent Scotland.
Mr Lochhead, along with pro-independence North Lanarkshire farmer Jim Brown and Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch MSP Dave Thomson, argued the UK Government had failed Scottish farmers by failing to deliver convergence uplift during budget allocations earlier this year.
“Your industry is a priority for Scotland,” Mr Lochhead told around 150 delegates at the debate, which was organised by NFU Scotland.
“What we find is that our parliament has the priorities but not the powers.”
He said the biggest threat to Scottish agriculture was the proposed in-out referendum on Britain’s European membership.
Mr Brown added: “If you vote yes, you have a government that supports farmers. If you vote no you leave it to the civil servants in Whitehall and they simply want to turn Scotland into a wildlife park.”
Mr Eustice, who was joined by former Lib Dem MEP George Lyon and pro-union Moray farmer Edward Mountain, argued that Scotland staying in the UK offered farmers the “best of both worlds”.
On the issue of convergence uplift, Mr Eustice said Defra had pledged to address Cap budgets following an extensive review of land types across the UK.
“We have committed to review the budget allocations in 2017, but before we need to do a comprehensive bit of work to compare different land types,” said Mr Eustice.
“Of course, if Scotland leaves the UK, it leaves the European Union and then it wouldn’t have to worry about the convergence uplift.”
The Rural Better Together lobbied that leaving the UK would mean leaving behind a home market of more than 60million consumers, as well as putting Scotch Beef in direct competition with Irish beef on the export market.