Scotland will attempt next week to win the blessing of European officials for its latest efforts to stop subsidy payments to slipper farmers and boost coupled support to protect the beef herd.
Richard Lochhead is to use Monday’s agriculture council meeting in Brussels to get clarity on whether his latest revision to the so-called Scottish clause to clamp down on payments to inactive farmers is legally acceptable.
He had earlier told NFU Scotland’s annual meeting at St Andrews the new Cap must only support farmers with “dirty wellies not comfy slippers”.
He will also be attempting at Monday’s meeting to find out if the commission will approve moves for Scotland to increase coupled support from 8% to 13%.
UK Farming Minister George Eustice had on Monday said it would be up to the Scottish Government to secure the commission’s approval for the increase as part of the responsibility and accountability that went with it getting the power to implement the Cap regionally. Only after the commission had given its approval would the UK Government be willing to enter discussions.
But Mr Lochhead said he found the position strange as Scotland was not allowed to negotiate directly with the commission and did not have that authority as Defra was the lead ministry. UK ministers also have to be present if he talks to Agriculture Commissioner Dacian Ciolos.
Mr Lochhead said he had understood from previous discussions that officials in Brussels viewed any increase in coupling as one for the UK to take internally.
Mr Lochhead last week released revised proposals on defining activity after the commission rejected its longstanding bid to link future subsidies to livestock stocking densities.
The new thinking would force subsidy recipients from 2015 to either keep livestock at an appropriate level linked to the carrying capacity of their land, or show significant active efforts annually to keep their farmland in good condition.
Mr Lochhead said the millions of pounds of payments received by slipper farmers for doing nothing had to stop.
“Where there’s no activity, or just token activity, there must be no payments,” added the minister, who said the challenge now was in making sure the implementing rules are correct.
Mr Lochhead also said he was genuinely open-mined on payment regions. The government has touted two – arable and rough grazing. But industry wants the rough grazing zone split into two to better target aid. The minister said he would look at all sensible suggestions, adding: “Our view at the time (of the proposals being published) was that dividing rough grazing areas into different types, in a way that every farmer could do, would be challenging. But we’ll look at all of this once again once we have had everyone’s views.”
He also said he was open to suggestions on using rural cash development funds to help farmers cope with change, albeit there were challenges because of Scotland’s poor budget allocation.
On tenancies and the review of agricultural tenancy legislation, Mr Lochhead said he would not shy away from taking radical action, where necessary. That could include new secondary or primary legislation if the review group he has set up recommends it.