A group representing Highland and island councils yesterday warned the Scottish Government Cap reform proposals could have a devastating impact on active hill farmers and lead to a further exodus from livestock production.
The Highlands and Islands Agricultural Support Group wants an increase in the touted area payment rates for the new rough grazing region, rather than it being divided up further as some have suggested.
The group, which speaks for councils in Shetland, Orkney, the Western Isles and Argyll and Bute, has followed the Scottish Crofting Federation in expressing alarm at the suggested 20-25 euro (£16.50-£20.75) a hectare payment.
Councillor Drew Ratter, of Shetland Islands Council, said: “The proposed rough grazing rate will be devastating for active hill farmers in the Highlands and islands and I’m sure for other hill areas in Scotland. To have published a rate so low with no explanation as to why the earlier exhaustive modelling has been dismissed is simply devastating.”
Mr Ratter said that work, first discussed at a conference organised by the government last spring, had indicated a potential payment range of between 27-68 euros (£22.40-£56.44) a hectare. Many had expected and believed the rates would be within that range in the consultation that was launched in December and on which industry is being asked to comment.
Mr Ratter said the minimum rate needed to support hill farming was about 35 euros (£29) a hectare, which was at the bottom end of the various payment models produced previously by the government.
“The founding principle of this round of Cap reform was to move away from historic production-based subsidy to a flatter area rate and move towards convergence of payments within member states. A very low basic payment for the rough grazing region could lead to a significant number of the surviving genuinely active producers in the fragile areas to de-stock and another round of land abandonment which is surely in no one’s interest.
“We propose the 35 euro rate on the clear understanding that this payment will only be available to active producers and that the Scottish Government will deliver on its undertaking to exclude naked acres and inactive producers (slipper farmers) from the new payment scheme.
“We believe that anything less would be a betrayal of Cabinet Secretary Richard Lochhead’s clearly stated intention to support our region on this, and would intentionally withdraw much-needed money from threatened agricultural systems in the Highlands and islands.”
Mr Ratter said the group had with the advice of others worked tirelessly to help government in its quest to design the new Cap support programme. But he added: “All that work seems to have gone by the wayside, with two years of work forgotten.”
But the government said its proposals as they stood would overall deliver an extra £3.99million in the Western Isles, £5.07million across the Highlands and £2.24million to Shetland, assuming the claimed land area remains the same.
A spokeswoman said: “We are taking industry concerns very seriously, and are open to suggestions for workable solutions. However, in the face of budget cuts imposed by Westminster we need to consider the needs of Scottish agriculture as a whole.”