SNP ministers hope to transform Scotland into a global leader in sustainable agriculture despite the sector legging behind in cutting harmful emissions.
The Scottish Government has launched a consultation on its proposed agriculture bill to overhaul payments for farmers.
The plans will investigate high-quality food production, fair income for farmers and nature restoration and protecting biodiversity.
The Scottish Government has committed to cut carbon emissions by 75 per cent of 1990 levels by 2045.
The blueprint aims to achieve a 31% reduction in agricultural emissions by 2032.
But Scotland’s agriculture sector has historically lagged behind other industries in cutting emissions – and only saw a 2.9% reduction from 2019 to 2020.
The Scottish Government’s current climate change plan states that by 2045, “our agriculture industry will have been transformed into a low emissions, holistic and integrated food production system that has a low environmental impact as well as benefitting nature, restoring biodiversity and contributing to our economy”.
The plan predicts that by 2032, agriculture emissions will reduce from 7MtCO2e to 5.3MtCO2e.
But Chris Stark, the chief executive of the independent Climate Change Committee, warned that Scotland’s agriculture sector has “been quite resistant to cutting emissions”.
SNP Rural Affairs Secretary, Mairi Gougeon, said: “We are supporting our farmers, crofters and land managers to produce more high quality and sustainable food, as well as ensuring out food system is more resilient.
“The fact is that high-quality food production is very much part of meeting our net-zero targets and dealing with the twin crises of climate change and biodiversity loss.
“We have ambitious targets and right across the agriculture sector we have the talent and skills to meet our aims.
“I would urge people from all walks of life to get involved and make their views known, these issues affect us all.”
Other proposals include plans to develop resilient and thriving rural and island communities including financial support for rural development and the rural economy.
It also looks at measures to modernise tenant farming, including providing tenants with the same opportunity to adapt to the future as the rest of Scottish agriculture, which would allow them to play their part in supporting biodiversity.
Fair work conditions, including the real living wage, for agriculture workers are also part of the plans.
Views are also being sought on making subsidy payments that establish minimum standards for animal health and welfare.
The consultation is open for responses until November.
It will include a series of online and in-person events to gather the views of stakeholders and the public.
The bill is expected in 2023 to enable the delivery of the Scottish Government’s vision for agriculture.
Ruth Taylor, agriculture and land use policy manager at WWF Scotland, said: “We can’t talk about Scotland’s future, without speaking about agriculture and how it’s funded.
“Farmers and crofters are at the frontline of climate change, and they also hold the solution as managers of the land.
“Currently over half a billion pounds of public money is spent on farming payments, but only a small pot of that funding is given to help restore and protect nature, and to reduce climate emissions.
“That’s why we believe changing how the Scottish Government pays farmers is essential if we’re to meet our climate targets.
“We hope that throughout this consultation process, the Scottish Government listens to and learns from those who are already taking steps to farm in more nature-friendly ways.”
Scottish Conservative shadow rural affairs secretary, Rachael Hamilton, said: “The SNP have dithered and delayed for too long in launching this consultation and now it has launched it represents a huge missed opportunity.
“Farmers and our agricultural sector have waited with bated breath to have their say on future agriculture policy but they will be questioning where the detail is. There is still a real lack of detail over how future funding will be delivered."
She added; “The SNP still cannot release themselves from the shackles of EU policy and large parts of this document seem to have been copied and pasted straight from the hated Common Agricultural Policy, which is an insult to our farmers.
“Rather than giving clarification and detail to our farmers, it looks as though the SNP-Green Government want to tie them up in more bureaucracy when it comes to future policy and hitting crucial targets, especially in reducing emissions.
“The SNP-Green Government have a real cheek to talk about supporting resilient and thriving rural and island communities.
"It is them who have ignored the needs of these communities year after year by failing to deliver lifeline ferries, delaying superfast broadband connections and centralising services away from rural areas."
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