The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Bid to help farmers prepare for future
The Scottish Government has revealed details for the first phase of its £51 million National Test Programme – designed to prepare farmers and crofters for future farm policy.
The National Test Programme (NTP): Preparing for Sustainable Farming initiative, which was announced in October last year, will be delivered in two phases over the next three years.
The first phase, defined as Track 1, offers farmers, crofters and land managers support for carbon audits, soil analysis and access to a new statistics programme for suckler beef producers.
Announcing details of the new programme, Rural Affairs Secretary Mairi Gougeon said: “Many are already leading the way having carried out carbon audits and soil sampling work but we are offering support to encourage all farmers and crofters to undertake this.
“We are planning to introduce enhanced conditionality for payments with targeted outcomes for biodiversity gain and a drive towards low carbon approaches.”
She said work on the NTP had been developed in partnership with industry and it was designed to arm farmers, crofters and land managers with “what they need” ahead of the launch of a Scottish Agriculture Bill next year.
Through Track 1, farmers, crofters and agricultural contractors can apply for a grant of £500 towards the cost of having a carbon audit of their business, or to have an existing audit updated if it is more than three years old.
They are eligible for this grant if they are registered for rural funding with the Scottish Government and have a Rural Payments and Services (RPS) username and password.
Support will also be made available for farmers to carry out soil analysis, via a Soil Analysis and Development Payment,
however this will only be awarded once a carbon audit has been completed.
Land managers claiming Region 1 land on their annual Single Application Form (SAF) form will be able to claim for the actual cost of soil analysis, up to a calculated maximum value for their soil sampling, and they will be given an additional payment with their first claim to cover personal development.
In addition, Track 1 will offer suckler beef producers access to YourHerdStats – a new online tool within the cattle movements and registrations system ScotEID.
Scottish Government said all claims must be made via new online portal, which can be accessed from the Preparing for Sustainable Farming guidance page on its RPS website.
Farmers will be able to apply for carbon audit support from May into early June, after which soil analysis claims will open for applications.
Scottish Land & Estates welcomed details of the NTP but said further clarity on post-Brexit agricultural policy was needed.
The organisation’s agriculture and climate change policy adviser Paul Richardson said: “The apparent lack of progress (on future policy) is creating significant uncertainty for Scotland’s farmers and land managers.”
Full details of the new schemes are online at ruralpayments.org