When I was elected to the post of Vice President at NFU Scotland back in February a culture shock awaited me. Following on from a very busy and involved five years on the Legal and Technical committee including a spell as chair, the step up to VP gave me a different angle on our industry.
I now have oversight of several committees and working groups. They are Milk, Environment and Land Use, Legal and Technical, Horticulture, Pigs, Education Skills and Development and Crofting and Highland and Islands. My fellow VP Andrew Connon covers the others.
The learning curve as a new VP is fast. I am finding the sheer range of business types, issues, specialisations, and characters involved to be challenging and enjoyable.
On milk, we are tackling price drops, contracts and labour; on horticulture we have issues on supply chain, margins and labour; in ELU we are looking at the Environment Bill and species management including the lynx reintroduction proposal; at L&T we are tackling Land Reform, community issues, utility issues and much more: in pigs, the recovery from recent extremely poor margins is underway, but we still have high cost of inputs; crofting are dealing with the Highly Protected Marine Area proposals and a new Crofting Bill on the horizon; Education Skills and Development are looking at developing a Scottish strategy for their remit; and added to that you have the administrative and oversight role of the VP. That’s just a brief list!
Perhaps the most exciting part of the role is the opportunity to meet so many new faces, learn so much about Scotland and food production, and the responsibility of representing our members’ interests. There is so much to take in and so much has become very detailed.
The detail aspect has prompted NFUS to look at using our collective specialist knowledge to our best advantage. Although Andrew Connon oversees the Livestock committee, my veterinary background is being used to cover the disease aspects of the committee. Andrew covers the forestry and energy aspects of ELU given his interest and professional background.
The departure of our last CEO prompted NFUS to carry out a review of its operations and processes. This is now underway and the new CEO, John Davidson, will be charged with delivering the changes when he takes up his post after the Highland Show. I am looking forward to seeing how this develops.
All of you will be aware by now of the Scottish Government ‘roadmap for agriculture’ (you will gather I’m not a fan of these terms) and the tight timescale for delivery. NFUS will make its position clear to government on each step of that roadmap.
The key point for farming and crofting is the proposed Agriculture Bill. Future support in this Bill is set out in four Tiers to deliver a graded range of support to our industry. The final decision on the Bill itself, which will give Ministers the powers to deliver support etc. will be determined not by NFUS or Ministers but by the 129 MSPs sitting in Holyrood. NFUS needs to make sure they are all aware of our industry position and that must be done well in advance of the Bill coming before Holyrood. How do we do this?
Education, communication, education. We can only educate what is a mainly urban parliament about rural issues by getting MSPs onto farms and explaining the issues and the consequences of certain decisions face to face. I have been involved in some on-farm meetings already and the level of ignorance and misunderstanding in some of our elected representatives, particularly on the timescales of farming decision making, is culpable. It is significant and encouraging that they came to find out more and asked some very searching questions.
If we are serious about ensuring the future of farming, crofting, our industry, our families, our way of life, we must engage with MSPs at a local level. NFUS Regional managers are well placed to facilitate these visits and ensure we get the message across the country. For those readers who, for one reason or another, are not members I urge you to consider joining NFUS. It is the only body standing up for your industry in Scotland.
As you can see from my role, there is a huge amount of work going on to put our views, interests and needs over to those who make decisions. You may not always agree with the approach, the view, the outcome. That reflects how diverse Scottish agriculture is and always will be. Its future depends on effective lobbying by NFUS. Our talented and experienced HQ staff currently represent members on over 300 different matters, a task which needs support from the industry. I urge you all to play whatever part you can, whether that is attending meetings to provide views, opinions, experiences, hosting farm visits, or just joining and helping financially.
