Local communities and businesses in rural Scotland are holding their breath to see what the Brexit vote will mean for them, and whether promises made during the campaign will be honoured.

In particular there is a fear it could change the whole political landscape for the landowners, farmers and crofters who depend on the subsidies which come their way from the European Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). These amounted to just under £500m last year.

CAP has been abused by some down the years, not least by the notorious “slipper farmers”, so called for making a great deal of money from subsidies without doing anything.

More recent reforms were designed to close such loopholes, to ensure all recipients were active in what remains a vital industry in Scotland.

Around 65,000 people are directly employed in agriculture in Scotland, 8 per cent of the rural workforce and a further 250,000 jobs (one in 10 of all Scottish jobs) are dependent on the sector.

Last week 13 government ministers and senior Conservatives made a commitment that every region, group and recipient of EU funding would continue to get their money if the UK voted in favour of a Brexit.

In an open letter, the signatories, who included leading Leave campaigners Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and Priti Patel, made specific commitments to the agricultural sector:

“If the public votes to leave on June 23, we will continue to fund EU programmes in the UK until 2020, or up to the date when the EU is due to conclude individual programmes if that is earlier than 2020.

“We will also be able to spend the money much more effectively. For example, some of the bureaucracy around payments to farmers is very damaging and can be scrapped once we take back control.”

This struck a chord with Scottish farmers and crofters whose CAP payments were months late this year because of the failure of a Scottish Government IT system, installed at a cost £180m, to deal with a new system of processing applications.

But people are still nervous. Speaking from The Highland Show NFU Scotland’s (NFUS) President Allan Bowie said: “The dramatic events of the past few hours will mark a period of great uncertainty for Scotland’s farmers and crofters. What is also clear is that the role of the Union in representing our members’ views and protecting their interests will rarely have been more important in our 103-year history.”

He said NFUS would be working to ensure that the negotiated exit from Europe and the CAP, would be replaced by domestic arrangements that “will see a profitable and competitive industry in Scotland.”

He made clear that NFUS would be holding the Brexit politicians to their word:

“What will be key for Scottish agriculture will be delivery on the commitments made in the campaign about support levels for agriculture in the event of a Brexit vote and to seek reassurances on terms of trade with rest of Europe and worldwide in the future.”

David Johnstone, chairman of the landowners’ organisation Scottish Land & Estates, spoke in a similar vein. He said the forthcoming weeks and months wold undoubtedly be a time of flux. That was why the UK and Scottish governments had to give “a clear and resounding message” that they stood firmly behind the rural areas.

“Whilst there is an impact from European Union decisions on all our lives, arguably nowhere is the role of the EU felt more acutely than on Scotland’s farms. We need to know that the CAP or its equivalent funding will continue in the short-term – ideally until the end of its present term at the end of 2020 – which will provide some necessary breathing space to plan beyond that period,” he said.

Meanwhile there is deep concern amongst conservationists who had seen the European Union as a as a vital line of defence in their fight to protect Scotland’s environment.

Dr Richard Dixon, Director of Friends of the Earth Scotland, said:

“The vote to leave the EU is a huge challenge to decades of progress on improving the environment and tackling climate change. Many of the politicians backing the leave vote are climate sceptics and against renewable energy, and much of the ‘red tape’ they complain about are the laws that have given us cleaner air and water, and forced companies to reduce pollution. In the 1980s our environmental record had us known as the ‘dirty man of Europe.’ The fight is on to stop us slipping back to the bad old days.”

He anticipated “a huge fight at the UK level” to keep laws which protect nature, prevent pollution and set standards for a clean environment. But he said most of EU environmental law was devolved to the Scottish Parliament so Scotland, could act.