MANY Herald readers will have experienced online applications to Government bodies for support for solar panels; biomass boilers; ground source heat pumps; air source heat pumps and the like.

Although a lot of detail is required, the online application process is relatively straightforward. Should any difficulties or problems arise there is a team of very helpful advisors at the end of the phone to assist with the process if the guidelines aren't clear. So hundreds of thousands of applications have been received and processed successfully for schemes covered by the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) for example.

So if it can be done why has our farming industry got into such a mess with its latest online application system (BPS online) designed to deliver EU farm support? Or more accurately why has the Scottish Government department (SGRPID) responsible for this got into such a mess and what impact might this have?

There are three key reasons. Firstly the system is far too complicated. Scottish farmers have to compete with food produced from all across the world and the present low prices for food (in fact a main reason for deflation in the economy) is testament to that global competition. However the EU in its wisdom by cobbling together a political compromise to continue farm support last year is now trying to micro manage every aspect of husbandry, production and environmental management of our beautiful countryside. The two just don't sit together. Secondly, civil servants are famous (or should I say infamous) for being serially incompetent when trying to introduce large scale IT systems like this.

They are not IT specialists nor do they have a real empathy for the industry or sector they serve so consequently with such a detailed / complicated system to implement it has turned into a nightmare for those who are trying to use it. Thirdly, Government IT systems should be designed to deliver policy priorities of that Government. The policy priorities for this system have become secondary to getting it to work at all costs and there are consequently two groups of losers. Firstly taxpayers who are picking up a cost, reportedly budgeted at around £178 million for this mess. Scandalous actually, especially at this time of austerity and cuts. Secondly, the customers of this online application system, namely farmers, who will receive less support as a result of this fiasco; it will cost them more to make the application; and the money will certainly be delivered late which could spell disaster for some with commodity food prices on the floor and cash flows being squeezed.

In the 21st century you shouldn't have to get up at 2am to access an IT system because it crashes during working hours because it can't cope; or take 5 minutes to simply log in never mind do anything; you should be able to print every page of the application in one go to have proof of the information that has been logged; you should expect the system to be prepopulated with all the information that SGRPID already has on individual farm units which is relevant to this scheme - but it isn't. Farmers have been audited and have logged information on every aspect of their business for 25 years but somehow they are starting from scratch as if no information has ever been received by the Scottish Government.

Every field of every farm in Scotland has been satellite mapped for this scheme to go along with every cow having its own individual passport, yes folks it's true every cow has a passport!! Somehow that's not enough as every field has to be individually validated for every crop that may be grown in it, and God help anyone who sprays a field for weeds, or sows manure or fertiliser more than exactly 2 metres from the centre of a hedge - and that needs recorded too.

And if you're lucky enough to be able to plough through this wretched maze of detailed blah (pardon the pun) and have a question, don't expect consistency from different area offices around Scotland. The poor SGRPID foot soldiers are as confused as farmers - their broadband speed may be quicker but their guidelines are being made up on the hoof.

It is right and proper that farmers receiving public money are properly audited to ensure that money is invested properly in the production of food and other public benefits. However because this system is driven by the computer that says 'no' more often than 'yes' that public money will be wasted on vast tracts of Scotland that produce little or no benefit to Scotland plc.

The online application system and the scheme it serves should be a means to an end not an end in itself. This is a disastrous scheme and a calamitous way to implement it with an online system not fit for purpose.

Jim Walker has extensive farming interests in Dumfries & Galloway and is a former president of NFU Scotland