COLUMN: Agricultural reform proposals clearer but still a way to go
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From the Croft by Russell Smith
We have now had a bit more clarity on the Scottish Government’s proposals for agriculture reform.
We are becoming familiar with the jargon of Tier 1 – basic payments subject to minimum standards; Tier 2 – payment for a better climate and for nature restoration; Tier 3 – targeted actions for innovation, supply chain and nature restoration; Tier 4 – complementary measures for development, measurement, peatland restoration and tree planting.
This won’t all happen at once. Some of the new conditionality will come in for the 2025 SAF application year for half of all funding. And new enhanced support measures (Tier 2) from 2026.
Then the rest (Tiers 3 and 4) come in from 2027. Regions 1, 2 and 3 will stay for the time being. There is not yet a final decision on what conditions will be required for Tier 1 payments.
Cross compliance and greening will continue as will statutory management requirements such as following tagging rules.
The Scottish Government is still minded to include Whole Farm Plans as a condition despite most stakeholders being against this as part of Tier 1. If it is part of Tier 1, then the Scottish Crofting Federation (SCF) is arguing that there should be simple version for small units so there isn’t too much extra burden imposed on crofters.
So for 2024, things stay the same. For 2025, basic payments continue but will have new conditions to meet standards on activity, climate, biodiversity, and business efficiency as well as safeguarding animal health and welfare.
It is difficult to disagree with the intention but we still don’t know what these standards will be. Some of the illustrative examples are fairly vague – “supporting and incentivising improved sheep nutrition” or “support maintaining and improving sheep health”.
So if you are crofting well at the moment you may not have do anything new: if you have room for improvement then it makes sense to do things better. The problems arise if crofters are forced into making changes that don’t work on the ground just to get payments.
For example, we can all improve nutrition by putting out more mineral buckets but there comes a point where the costs exceed the benefits and the crofter is best placed to know where that point is.
BPS is then replaced in 2026 by base and enhanced payments. Voluntary coupled schemes (eg Ewe Hogg Scheme) should still be there for 2025 and 2026 but no indication after that. LFASS will continue to 2026 but as with VCS “consideration is still being given to how this type of support will be delivered from 2027”. CAGS will continue to 2026 then be replaced by as yet unspecified schemes in Tier 3 and 4. The Farm Advisory Service will continue as part of Tier 4.
So there is a lot of consulting to go yet to decide what is appropriate and will work. We are promised more information in June this year.
There are currently schemes to help you with carbon audits, soil sampling and support for animal health and welfare. The Farm Advisory Service can help if you want to get ahead of the game.
SCF are still pressing for a clearer picture of where common grazings will fit in – normally forgotten until the last minute, then shoehorned in in a way that almost but doesn’t quite work despite being nine per cent of Scotland’s active agricultural land.
We also need clarity on the LFASS replacement – you can’t make a judgement on how good the base payments are until you have the whole picture. And we need to have some guidance on what the total level of payments will be.
Russell Smith is a Bonar Bridge crofter and a SCF director.
