A year has passed since hundreds of farmers protested outside Holyrood over late subsidy payments.
The rally, organised by NFU Scotland (NFUS), took place on Thursday March 10, 2016.
It followed months of frustration among farmers, crofters and the wider rural business community over lengthy delays to farm subsidy payments.
In previous years the majority of producers received these payments in December, however problems with a new £178million IT system to administer payments left farmers and crofters at their wits end waiting for vital support monies.
This led to a red-faced Scottish Government having to admit failure, resulting in the creation of an emergency loan scheme to issue advance payments to producers. The scheme was launched just days before the NFUS rally at Holyrood.
In an exclusive interview with the Press and Journal, the farm minister at the time, Richard Lochhead, admitted government had been unable to deliver on time, but said “it was a tall order”.
In some ways a lot has changed since then, however much remains the same.
Lochhead is out and Fergus Ewing is in under the new title of Cabinet Secretary for Rural Economy and Connectivity.
NFUS has also had a change to its top table with Andrew McCornick elected as the new union president, alongside vice-presidents Gary Mitchell and Martin Kennedy.
From day one Mr Ewing has pledged to get farm payments on an even keel.
Despite his best efforts another cash advance loan scheme had to be created last year as the brand new IT system was still not up to scratch. It has also been revealed that 33 farmers are still waiting for payment from the 2015 scheme – 14 months late.
Uptake for the latest cash advance scheme was not as high as hoped, despite the fact it offered advance payments of up to 80% in November.
The big question now is – when will the remainder of these payments be issued and when will the producers who opted not to sign up to the advance scheme receive their first payment?
When asked, Mr Ewing said: “As we have over 18,000 claims to process and validate we are unable to confirm precisely when individual claims will be paid. Customers can check the status of their own claim online at any time or by contacting their local RPID area office.”
He thanked farmers and crofters for their “continued patience” and said the 2017 Single Application Form window would soon be opening.
Recently elected NFUS president Andrew McCornick said farmers and crofters were desperate to hear when outstanding payments would be made and also keen to receive clarity on what money had been paid and under what scheme.
He said the next few weeks would be a test of the government’s progress since the 2015 fiasco.
“It is in everyone’s interests that the improvements made in the application system last year continue to be built on,” added Mr McCornick.
Whether or not the IT system is now up to scratch will become evident in the weeks to come.
It is also unclear if the system will be needed in years to come – who knows what the future holds for farm subsidy payments once Brexit occurs.
Let’s hope this wasn’t a short-lived waste of £178million, which led to heartache and frustration for so many.
