Splashing: Royal Highland Show basks in the sun

Andrew Mcmillan from Bute washes his Clydesdale horse at the Royal Highland Show. The event at Ingliston, on the edge of Edinburgh, saw fine weather for its second day, which also included cattle and sheep championships

Farmers, politicians and members of the public attending the Highland Show this weekend will be invited to sign up to a “Pledge for Nature” by the Nature Friendly Farming Network(nffn).

Hoping to get greater recognition of the role played by farmers and growers in supporting the country’s natural capital, the group also wants to encourage more prominence to be given to nature-friendly farming practices.

The group – launched at the start of the year – is also seeking to see better support for environmental objectives in post-brexit agricultural policy.

The organisation’s Scottish chairman, Dumfriesshire farmer Michael Clark, said the NFFN aimed to strengthen the voice of farmers and crofters who believed sustainability and working with nature should be a key requirement of farming policy.

He said: “The Nature Friendly Farming Network is calling for a change to rural policy in Scotland that supports and rewards farmers and crofters for providing public goods, such as abundant wildlife and healthy ecosystems.”

He said the organisation also believed that there was substantial support from the public for helping farmers and crofters to provide these previously unpaid-for services.

“Farmers and growers could then provide for two markets: the traditional ones for the foodstuffs and other goods which they produce, backed up by a second income stream of support payments for the public good and other environmental services – which benefit all but currently benefit from very little financial support.”

He said farmers across Scotland committed to nature friendly farming were already seeing results in terms of biodiversity, soil health, water quality and air quality.