Highlands and islands ‘a unique case’ MSPS told

With few agricultural options other than extensive livestock production, Scotland’s Highlands and islands are uniquely vulnerable to many of the possible threats posed by Brexit, a major study presented to MSP’S has argued.

The report released yesterday was produced for the Highlands and Islands Agricultural Support Group (HIASG), and warnedthatanysignificant change to support measures such as the coupled beef and sheep support and the less favoured area support scheme (LFASS), could lead to land abandonment which would, in turn, lead to widespread environmental and social impacts.

The report – Post-brexit implications for Agriculture, Crofting & Related Land Use in the Highlands and Island, drawn up by Dr Andrew Moxey of Pareto Consulting and Steven Thomson of SRUC – stated that existing trends towards fewer livestock, reduced agricultural activity, land abandonment and a shrinking farm workforce were all likely to be reinforced by Brexit.

And it went on to warn that multiplier effects of this would ripple both up and down the supplychains

0 Farming is key to rural communities, report says and into the wider economy, threatening economicactivityandemployment in sectors such as input supplies and marts as well as food and drink suppliers and sustainable tourism projects.

Agriculture’s role in sustaining a range of ecosystem services would, according to the report, also be hit – with farreaching implications for the aesthetic and cultural experiences which the report said underpined many tourism activities.

Scotland’s rural economy secretary Fergus Ewing said the report helped to highlight the distinctive challenges of farming in the Highlands and islands, both in terms of the land and those available to work it: “It confirms what I have been saying ever since the Brexit referendum – that Brexit is going to be the biggest challenge that the industry and rural communities has faced for generations.

“It is therefore vital that the special circumstances of the Highlands and islands are not ignored, and that their unique social, economic and environmental conditions remain supported.”

Douglas Irvine, economic development manager for Shetland Islands Council, and chair of HIASG, said:“the Scottish Government must set out its thoughts on this as a matter of some urgency to give farmers, crofters and other rural businesses time to adapt to the changes that are coming.”