Big questions
Rog Wood at the Royal Highland Show
LAST week, Rural Affairs Secretary, Richard Lochhead outlined the general principles of how the reformed Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) would deliver support payments to Scottish farmers.
NFU Scotland is now calling on the Scottish Government to put timelines in place when it expects detailed information on CAP implementation to be available to Scottish farmers.
With the 2014 harvest in Scotland likely to commence next month, Scotland’s arable farmers are keenest to see detail around greening requirements, particularly on crop diversification and Environmental Focused Areas (EFAs), to aid their decisionmaking process on what to plant this autumn and next spring for harvest 2015.
Crucial questions the Union are seeking answers to include:
Which crops can be grown to meet the Crop Diversification requirement?
What nitrogen-fixing crops will be permitted to be grown as EFA?
What catch crops and green cover will be permitted as EFA?
What are the start and end dates for the period which agricultural production will not be allowed on fallow, field margins, and buffer strips?
The Union would like information on such matters to be available to growers by July, believing this timetable to be essential if proper management decisions are to be made now.
Speaking at the Highland Show yesterday, NFUS Vice-president Allan Bowie said: “Growers don’t just plan one year ahead, they have a rotation of crops across their land that can span ten years.
“The EFA requirements alone have the potential to strip out precious productive hectares. It is crucial there is a range of options to fit a complex spread of farm cropping and field structure.
“For some farms, utilising the nitrogen fixing crop or break crop options will be important. First and foremost, it is imperative for growers that these crops make a profitable margin if they are to be seriously considered in rotations, but there are also genuine environmental benefits.”
Mr Bowie went on to explain that another difficulty growers face on EFA rules is that they are likely to preclude the growing of winter crops on a parcel of land for two successive years, due to the 12-month agricultural activity rules. So early provision of detail is essential.
The exact same requirement for information applies to crop diversification – the three-crop-rule (that affects over 4000 growers) – as the limits placed on a maximum proportion of main and second crops that can be grown makes planning a lot more difficult. Mr Bowie went on: “Uncertainty around the rules can be damaging and has ramifications for other highly successful sectors. Whisky is a massive success story for Scotland, but it is underpinned by Scotland’s biggest arable crop, spring malting barley.
“For growers to give certainty of supply to real markets like whisky production, we need Scottish Government to direct resources to fleshing out detail now. If that requires work at European level then the urgency is even greater and that work must take place before the Commission shuts down for summer.”