The majority of farmers want an immediate switch from historic to area-based payments under the new Common Agricultural Policy (Cap), according to a Press and Journal poll.
Full details of the new Cap will be announced by farm minister Richard Lochhead in the Scottish Parliament tomorrow.
How he choses to move from historic to area-based payments is likely to divide the Scottish farming industry.
A survey of farmers on the P&J website reveals that 82.57% want an immediate switch to area-based payments.
This is in stark contrast to lobbying from NFU Scotland, who last week launched an online petition calling for a transitional period when moving to area-based payments – something only 17.43% of farmers supported in the P&J poll.
The union has gone so far as to threaten the withdrawal of its support from the farm minister if he fails to deliver the right outcomes under the new Cap.
Chief executive Scott Walker last week said: “He [Lochhead] knows what he has got to do to have our support.”
The union has called for both a transitional period when moving to area-based payments and a three-region area model, via the splitting of the rough grazing region.
Last night, union president Nigel Miller tried to smooth relations in the industry issuing a plea for everyone to work together when moving to an era of area-based payments.
He said the move to the new system would be a “tough deal to implement without squeezing production, losing jobs or reducing farm capacity”.
He said the top priority for industry following the Cap announcement on Wednesday would be the detail of how to implement the new system.
“That detail can make or break the reform at farm level. It is in all our interests to make Scottish agriculture work. It must be time for all sectors and groups to work together to move us into a new support era,” he said.