Brexit leaves us at a crossroads
With Brexit day less than a year away, the future of rural Scotland is now at a major crossroads.
The Scottish Government is currently consulting on the future of farm payments and rural development in Scotland.
The common agricultural policy (CAP) is the single biggest slice of the EU budget, accounting for 38 per cent of all the money spent across Europe, and has underpinned farming in Perthshire for over 40 years.
It’s not just direct payments to farmers, but includes a whole raft of wider measures for our rural areas and rewarding the things the market doesn’t pay for, like reforesting farmland, maintaining waterways, creating natural habitats for wildlife, and supporting young people into farming.
So it’s pretty urgent that we decided what will replace it.
The opportunity we have now to design our own system is a precious chance to show the rest of the EU what a sustainable system of farming support would look like.
Sadly, the government consultations are sorely lacking in vision, and fail to propose any ambitious new measures that could further protect Perthshire’s beautiful countryside whilst making it a vibrant place to live.
We have some great examples of this locally, with successful businesses which provide employment, enhance our landscape and produce much needed local food.
Comrie Croft has taken a marginal sheep farm and created a vibrant food, tourism and events hub renowned across Scotland and beyond.
Tomnaha – the on-site market garden – provides food for local families, restaurants and the on-site shop, employing three people on three hectares of wigwams on site land.
The industry average in Scotland is just one person for every 40 hectares.
Our farming support system needs to encourage this ambition for diverse, mixed farms.
Further north, Tombreck farm on Loch Tay has created a community space, The Big Shed, whilst providing much needed rural housing.
Future plans include extensive reforesting, reducing sheep numbers and creating more space for people to live.
On more marginal land however, farms like Tombreck need more support in exploring ways for traditionally upland sheep operations to make best use of their land.
We also need to think about the changing face of our countryside and what new measures we could introduce to support this.
Tayside’s beaver population is proving to be a great pull for wildlife tourism and are creating beautiful, diverse wetlands, but undoubtedly this can be challenging for the farmers who’s land they settle on.
We need to introduce a specific fund that supports farmers for this loss of land whilst paying for mitigation measures like drains and fences to make sure the loss of land is kept to a minimum.
And rural support is not just about farming, but also protecting our woodlands, forests and hillsides for local people and visitors.
The recent purchase of Kinclaven Bluebell Woods by the Woodland Trust may have been funded by donations, but the ambitious plans to expand the wood with 34,000 native trees is funded by EU money.
We need to urgently reassure local communities and conservation groups that funding for our woodlands will be protected and enhanced post-Brexit. Comrie Croft has a range of yurts and