Time for common sense for vining peas

I am pleased the SNP Government and Richard Lochhead have given farmers till June 15 to submit their first applications under the new Common Agricultural Policy.

I now appeal to him to correct a blatant injustice that has the potential to do a great deal of harm to the vining pea industry, which would be a disaster for Dundee and for the 400 or so farmers who grow peas in Perthshire, Angus and Fife.

These farmers produce 25,000 tonnes a year, gathered by a fleet of 12 self-propelled harvesters.

A small army keeps the operation running around the clock as when the peas are perfect they must be processed and frozen in a Dundee factory within 90 minutes. A vital industry in our backyard. Farmers who grow peas for vining in England, France and Belgium have been given a competitive advantage compared to our own local growers due to one of the most bizarre decisions Richard Lochhead has ever made as an SNP Government minister, made even more bizarre when one considers one of the EU’s main objectives when agreeing the 2015-20 CAP reform. The EU website has a Q&A section – Q: Why do we need a Common Agricultural Policy at EU levels?

A: Measures must be taken at European level to ensure fair conditions with a common set of objectives, principles and rules.

The EU decided, quite rightly, that vining peas are an ideal crop for farmers to grow to meet environmental obligations under new Greening requirements.

Peas – and beans – are leguminous crops that require no artificial nitrogen.

Legumes have the unique ability to use nitrogen freely available in the atmosphere for crop growth, once harvested farmers then plant a crop of winter wheat that uses residual nitrogen from the pea crop.

Lochhead is the only farming minister who has decided to frustrate farmers’ ability to grow vining peas to meet their 5% “greening” requirement.

He has taken practical EU rules and gold-plated them.

Growers face draconian penalties should they harvest any crop of vining peas before August 1.

This is pure madness and makes no sense at all as many crops will be perfect for harvesting in July.

Instead, Mr Lochhead will force these farmers to grow nothing and fallow their land instead.

The unintended consequence of this half-baked policy is the potential to create up to 400 new part-time slipper farmers. Why would any SNP minister wish to force hard-pressed farmers to grow nothing?

Mr Lochhead must now change the rules in Scotland to ensure crops of vining peas can be harvested from July 1.

SNP referendum promises to farmers have melted like snow off a dyke.

On vining peas the latest score is England 1 Scotland 0 – we may be in injury time but Mr Lochhead still has time to score an equaliser and be a hero.