Hundreds of farmers from across Scotland marched on Holyrood today to protest over late farm payments and problems in the supply chain.
A sea of posters with slogans like “No farmers, no food”, “Less bull, more backing” and “Computer problems = no defence for SNP incompetence” greeted Farm Minister Richard Lochhead, Deputy First Minister John Swinney and other MSPs.
The rally, which was called by NFU Scotland, was organised to highlight to MSPs the cash-flow crisis being caused as a result of payment delays.
It comes days after First Minister Nicola Sturgeon revealed the government would provide up to £200million of national funds to cover subsidy payments to any farmers or crofters who have not yet received their first payment by the end of this month.
The delays have been blamed on problems with a new farm payments IT system which is costing nearly £180million to create.
“We welcome the intervention of the first minister. We think it was right and we can now go on with a bit more confidence, but we need to address fairness in the supply chain,” NFU Scotland president Allan Bowie told farmers and politicians yesterday.
“This is the first time in the history of this building (Scottish Parliament) that as an industry we are here. Now that says something as well. Normally we are very tolerant. Normally we are very reasonable. Normally we just get our heads down and we do the work. Actually with the crisis that was developing, we had to say something.”
He called on politicians to develop a government food policy that ensured farmers got a better deal from the supply chain.
Addressing the rally, Mr Lochhead who has faced calls to resign over the late payments fiasco, praised farmers for turning out in force at parliament.
“The NFU have done the right thing by organising this rally today to highlight the importance of farming, crofting and food production in Scotland,” he said.
“And whilst we have robust critical debate inside that chamber (Holyrood), we all agree amongst all political parties that food production in this country is an absolute priority as is helping out our food producers in their hour of need, whether that’s because of the issues they’ve had with the payments, or whether it’s because of the weather, or low market prices.”
He said government was committed to ensuring food production was underpinned with support so that farmers could “put food on the tables, look after the environment and sustain jobs”.
Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson said the SNP needed to ensure problems with the IT system were fixed on time for this year’s applications, while Scottish Liberal
Democrats leader Willie Rennie accused the government of being in denial for months over the issue.
He warned the pledge of £200million may “just be too late for some” and said government needed to act quickly to get money out the door.
