Convergence cash has been used to top up payments
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From the Croft column by Russell Smith
Those eligible should by now have had two Scottish Integrated Administration and Control System (SIACS) payments. The first was the Less Favoured Area Support Scheme (LFASS) at 40 per cent - much reduced because Scottish Government never got their act together on replacing LFASS as required under the Common Agricultural Policy.
However, the government has used the second tranche of the Convergence Money (a £160 million package the UK Government agreed to pay to rectify a historic wrong relating to EU CAP funding that it failed to pass on to Scotland between 2014 -2020) to top up payments to the full LFASS amount. This is the second payment which also includes an element of per hectare payments to Regions 1, 2 and 3.
The Scottish Crofting Federation argued for (and got) a bigger share going to Regions 2 and 3 as these are the regions that have a very low rate of payment, which was the reason for the Convergence Money coming to the UK in the first place.
However, the second tranche of the Convergence Money is the last so that particular rabbit isn’t available next year for the Scottish Government to pull out of a hat to make up LFASS.
The government budget for 2021/22 has been published and shows that Pillar 1 payments (basic payment and greening) will be maintained and that LFASS will be paid in full. So you do have a basis for planning ahead, albeit for one year only.
Cattle and sheep prices in the marts seem to be holding up post-Brexit but it is only six weeks since we left the EU so much too early to get excited.
There are some problems with exports of meat and live animals but, as store producers, we don’t see these. We have been promised a support scheme if prices do crash.
Despite all these uncertainties, access to crofts is always a hot topic, especially with young crofters and would-be crofters. The Scottish Crofting Federation (SCF) is repeating an online session on this on March 4 – book now if you want to log in. We have also raised the issue with the Crofting Commission.
The annual census gives the Commission a lot of information on absentees, crofts not being worked and other breaches of the regulations. Plus there is a fair chunk of non-responders who may be also in breach. The stumbling block isn’t the will to do anything but the resources required to work through the regulatory process. This can take up to two years for each case.
Some of the new Commission posts in the Western Isles will concentrate on residence and land use enforcement and we will watch how they get on with interest. If they can demonstrate that extra effort can bring moribund townships back to life then that would strengthen the case for more resources to be rolled out across the crofting counties.
And we did get the sheep scanned before the worst of the snow hit – thank you Simon – all outdoors and socially distanced. By some reports, percentages are generally down for no discernible reason I can see. Ours is back to normal after an exceptionally good year last year: I still don’t know why.
Here’s hoping the weather gets milder next week as forecast and the sheep can get some forage so we save on hay.
Bonar Bridge crofter Russell Smith is a SCF director.
