Farmers and crofters face losing 9.5% of their direct subsidy payments in the new Common Agricultural Policy.
The Scottish Government touted the figure in a consultation yesterday on the amount of money it intends transferring from Cap’s pillar one budgets to secure vital rural development payments in pillar two. The government had the potential to transfer up to 15%, but Rural Affairs Secretary Richard Lochhead said he intended limiting it to 9.5% between 2015-2020.
Organisations representing farmers and crofters as well as environmental organisations and rural communities have until December 16 to respond to the government’s suggestion so that a formal decision can be reached and the European Commission notified by the end of the year.
The government confirmed the new rural development budget would increase funds available for agri-environment measures by £10million a year, secure a £65.5million payout in less-favoured aid for those in the hills, uplands and islands as well as plough cash into forestry, crofting, new farming entrants, food and drink and rural communities. Total funding of £1.3billion would be available.
Mr Lochhead said the suggested rate struck the best balance between providing a rural development budget that allows Scotland to address its obligations while supporting priority areas of the agricultural sector.
He added: “I have said all along that I will not transfer money away from rural development as Scotland has the lowest payment rates in Europe – just one sixth of the EU average. I also want to protect food production in this country and direct payments to Scottish farmers and crofters have already been cut twice, once at European level and again by the UK Government, so I have to think carefully about the level of transfer.
“Ideally, I would prefer to be allocating additional funds rather than balancing cuts in what are already the poorest Cap budgets of any EU country. However, due to the atrocious negotiating and budget decisions taken by the UK Government, the reality is that unless a transfer is made our rural development budget will not be able to meet all the demands and obligations placed upon it.”
RSPB Scotland director Stuart Housden said the proposal was both good and bad, adding the suggested transfer could be a “lot better”. The RSPB was disappointed that out of a possible 15% the government had only decided to shift 9.5% and blocked the use of a further £220million from being used to protect the environment.
Mr Housden accused the government of failing to meet its own performance indicators for farmland birds and wildlife sites as well as targets for biodiversity, water quality and climate change. He too said LFA cash should be better targeted to help farmers and the environment.
NFU Scotland said it was disappointed the suggested figure was 2% above its desired level. President Nigel Miller said it would use the consultation to call for as much pillar one support to be retained as possible. “Our members will view the proposed modulation rate of 9.5% as too high and are unlikely to accept any transfer between pillars that is higher than the existing voluntary modulation rate.”
Farmers’ subsidy payments are currently cut by between 9-14% using a combination of cuts, the level of which are dependent on the amount of support they receive.