NFU Scotland is pressing Scottish Government to strip out gold-plating from within Scotland’s Common Agricultural Policy greening rules to remove the competitive disadvantage faced by our growers.
While the Brexit vote will inevitably lead to different arrangements for Scottish agriculture in the future, the union said that the expectation was that existing arrangements for direct support through the CAP will remain in place for future scheme years.
As such, there is still much that can be done to simplify and improve the current implementation of greening in Scotland, notwithstanding European Commissioner Phil Hogan’s imminent proposals at a European level for simplification.
Areas where gold-plating can be stripped out of Scottish rules include the growing of Nitrogen Fixing Crops to meet greening requirements; the use of conversion factors when calculating Ecological Focus Areas; grazing on buffer strips; management of fallow land and a greater choice of EFA options including forestry and hedges.
The union has invited Scotland’s Cabinet Secretary for the Rural Economy, Fergus Ewing to visit an arable farm in the weeks ahead to see how Scotland’s existing greening measures are impacting on farm and hear how growers in other parts of the UK are operating to a preferential set of greening rules.
In writing to the Cabinet Secretary, union president Allan Bowie said: “Last week’s decision for the UK to leave Europe means that future delivery of support at a Scottish or UK level must be discussed and agreed and the union’s job will be securing the best deal possible for our farmers and crofters from that negotiation.
“However, until we are officially out of Europe and no longer benefitting from the CAP, we must continue to operate as before – and that means seeking significant changes to our greening requirements to remove the gold-plating introduced at a Scottish level.
“On using Nitrogen Fixing Crops to meet EFA requirements, Scotland-only management rules on harvesting and field margins around put Scottish growers at a competitive disadvantage with respect to growers in England. For 2016, a third management prescription was added for Scotland, requiring farmers growing NFC as an EFA option to grow at least two such crops. The area of the largest crop must not account for 75% or more of the NFC EFA crop area.
“For many growers, this makes this option impractical and on farms with a relatively small EFA obligation, the smaller of the crops would be too small to be economically produced, stored, transported and marketed,” said Mr Bowie.
“Given the uncertainty that lies ahead, Scotland’s growers deserve to get the best deal from greening measures and Scottish Government use this opportunity to strip out its own gold-plating. That would make the years ahead where we continue to operate within the CAP more manageable and efficient for our farmers while still delivering meaningful environmental benefits.”
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