Less Favoured Area payments should arrive in coming weeks

Farmers in Scotland’s hills and mountains can expect to see their Less Favoured Area Support scheme payments starting to arrive in their bank accounts in the coming weeks.

For those who applied under the loan scheme launched earlier in the year this will consist of the balance of their dues, likely to be around 10 per cent of their claim, while those who didn’t apply will receive their full claim.

However, although an estimated 5,500 farmers of the 11,000 likely to qualify will receive their payments in the current tranche, a small number might have to wait until June.

With the current scheme still open for applications until 12 april, there remains a short window which would see claim ants receive at least 90 per cent of their claim made within a fortnight. NFU Scotland less favoured areas committee chairman Robert Macdonald urged anyone who had yet to apply to do so.

A spokesman for the Scottish Government said that the 2018 scheme was currently being paid was worth an estimated £63 million to the industry. He added that while the 2019 scheme – which producers were currently claiming in their SAF forms – was set to fall to 80 per cent of previous payment levels, steps were being taken to ensure that these remained close to 100 per cent.

And while a similar approach was being taken for 2020 payments which the EU had ruled should be made at 40 per cent, he said no conclusive outcome had yet been reached.