Several farming organisations have joined forces to urgently seek a meeting with Cabinet Secretary Richard Lochhead to discuss the potential damage that could be caused by the lack of robust activity requirement which allows non-producing landowners to claim Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) support payments on seasonally let lend.

The joint approach from the Scottish Tenant Farmers association (STFA), NFU Scotland, the National Sheep Association Scotland and the Scottish Beef Association follows numerous calls from farmers to each of the organisations expressing frustration and disappointment as they face disruption to their businesses caused by the loss of grass lets and/or BPS and LFASS (Less Favoured Areas Support Scheme) payments on seasonal grazing land.

STFA chairman Christopher Nicholson said: "Seasonal lets represent about 15 per cent of the tenanted sector and the movement of public support payments away from active farmers will have a serious impact on the livestock producers who rely on seasonal grazing (lets).

"There is also growing concern amongst tenants with limited duration tenancies - such as limited partnerships, SLDTs (Short Limited Duration Tenancies) and LDTs (Long Duration Tenancies) - due to end in the next few years who can see that this behaviour of non-active landowners claiming support payments reduces the chances of non-secure tenants being able to renew viable long-term leases for the future.

Mr Nicholson says the STFA is receiving calls from tenants and owner-occupiers across Scotland who are facing disruption and uncertainty. He reckons the hardest hit are likely to be hill farmers, where increasing support payments provide a strong incentive for non-active landowners to make claims for support. According to Mr Nicholson: "While this is good news to the non-active, it is damaging to the active farming businesses who face the loss of BPS support and LFASS payments, putting at risk fragile hill livestock production.

"We would like to discuss with the Cabinet Secretary ways to build more robust and stricter activity criteria to ensure that only genuinely active farmers are able to draw down BPS payments."

Supporting that line, NFUS President Allan Bowie said: "Support should be there to underpin productive businesses, not simply a reward for owning land. As soon as the decision was made in Europe to move away from payments linked to production, people who have animals but not control of the land are at risk of losing support payments.

"We are concerned by the situation facing many of our members who are now losing access to land that they previously farmed."