Payment threat to environment

Threatened cuts to vital lifeline payments received by hill and upland farmers would not only be devastating for their businesses but also for the natural environments which they tend.

That was the message given to rural economy secretary, Fergus Ewing yesterday when he attended a meeting of hill farmers in Grantown-on-spey. Less favoured area support scheme (LFASS) payments are due to be cut by 20 per cent in 2019, followed by a cut of 80 per cent the following year, with complete uncertainty from then on, a situation which NFU Scotland told the secretary was unacceptable.

However, the Scottish Government has said it is unable to provide any certainty beyond 2019 and put this down to a lack of clear assurances from the UK government on post-brexit guarantees.

The union restated its position that the LFASS payments are vital to Scottish farming and crofting businesses, and the Scottish Government needs to continue to provide support at its current level of £65 million through 2019 and 2020.

NFU Scotland LFA committee chairman Robert Macdonald said: “LFASS payments provide a vital financial boost to farmers and crofters who are trying forge a living out of some of the hardest land in the country. For them to lose out on any of this support would not only be devastating for their businesses but also for the natural environments which they tend to.”

Union president Andrew Mccornick, added that farmers and crofters in these disadvantaged areas provided a vast array of economic, environmental and social benefits and that the payments were soon reinvested in the local community..