£2m boost for new entrants
more than 600 new entrants to farming heard yesterday that they will receive payments of between £1,146 and £4,250 under the Scottish Government’s £2 million New entrants Scheme.
NFU Scotland welcomed the announcement – the recipients will receive the first tranche of the cash going into bank accounts in the next few days followed by a second payment in April next year.
But Aberdeenshire new entrant John Fyall, of Sittyton, Newmacher, expressed his “deep disappointment” over the payment level. “We were silenced in 2010 by the promise of a payment in 2013 which we knew could not be more than around £6,200 by european Union support rules.
“But not to get the full amount, and then be told we will get it in two instalments is deeply hurtful to every new entrant juggling finances.
“At the 2012, summit richard Lochhead [Scottish rural affairs secretary] assured new entrants that 2013 would bring change. We doubted this, and he gave his word that if eU didn’t change by then he would find funds.
“I need to find another £40,000 to get through two years unsubsidised, on top of the interest already paid on an overdraft which gambled on getting a single farm payment if not in 2010 then at least by 2013.”
He said the industry and government should feel ashamed that weather aid and single farm payments would be delivered in full but said new entrants were being treated as “second class citizens” in the farming industry.
Without responding directly to Fyall’s comment, Lochhead described new entrants as the future of farming, saying that is why the Scottish Government had done “as much as it could” to support and encourage those wishing to get into the industry.
But Fyall believed the minister could have done more towards finding a solution for new entrants who have been excluded from support up until now. “Solutions to the anomalies [in the present common agricultural policy or CAP] must be laid at his door whilst he chooses to continue to pay the outgoer of my farm the single farm payment.”
In total, 806 applications were made for the support, which is intended to bridge the gap experienced by newcomers to farming and deer farmers who have been excluded from the single farm payment scheme.
This gap should be closed in January 2015 when the next CAP commences and there will be special provision for newcomers to the farming industry.
of the 169 rejected applications, almost half were thrown out because of a lack of land or information over the farming carried out. others were farming less than the three hectare minimum area and 24 applications were dismissed because they were already receiving more than £25,000 in single farm payments.
mull farmer Iain mackay, chairman of NFU Scotland’s “new generation” group and a member of the Scottish Gov- ernment’s new entrants panel commented that while the payments were welcome, “the new CAP arrangements cannot come quick enough for Scotland’s new entrants”.
Looking forward, NFU Scotland president Nigel miller added: “Payments under the new entrants scheme follow awards made under the Scottish Government’s weather aid assistance.
“Weather Aid payments have still to be concluded but, were there to be an underspend, we would welcome consideration being given to topping up the new entrants pot.
“The Scottish Government must crack on, and allocate extra resources if necessary, to complete the weather aid fund allocations. That would help us identify if further funding might be available for the new entrants budget in 2014.”