Hundreds of farmers, crofters and representatives of agricultural businesses across Scotland will head to Holyrood next week to protest over delayed farm subsidy payments.
The National Farmers’ Union for Scotland (NFUS) last night revealed plans to hold a rally outside the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh on Thursday.
The union said the rally was being held to highlight to MSPs the “deepening cash crisis in Scotland’s countryside” and to warn them that the farming industry’s position as “the cornerstone of the whole rural community” was under threat.
NFUS president Allan Bowie said the sector was facing a serious cash flow crisis as a result of three factors – the poor prices being paid to farmers for their produce, knock-on effects of the wettest winter on record and the Scottish Government’s failure to deliver farm subsidy payments on time.
He said the government’s £180million IT system for administering subsidy payments was “not fit for purpose” and only £100million out of a £400million subsidy pot had been paid to farmers and crofters so far.
In previous years the government has made the bulk of payments in December.
Mr Bowie said: “The gaping hole in the Scottish rural economy is of the Scottish Government’s making and, with parliament closing down on March 24 ahead of the Scottish elections in May, they have a three-week window in which to turn this disastrous situation around.
“Our cabinet secretary Richard Lochhead has to finish what he started and deliver payments to farmers now.
“If that requires intervention by the first minister to deliver then she would have the agricultural community’s backing.”
He said that although March was a busy time of the year for farmers with calving, lambing, and crop sowing work under way, the union would be bringing producers from across Scotland and representatives from agricultural supply businesses to Holyrood on March 10 to “impress upon all MSPs the damage that payment delivery failure is doing and the urgent need to resolve this matter”.
Mr Bowie said: “We want our MSPs to recognise the scale of the problem, the potential impact on jobs in the wider rural economy and the need for the Scottish Government to take urgent and drastic action to resolve the IT and payment issue.”
The rally will start outside the Scottish Parliament at 11am and last for approximately an hour.