crofting Crofting is the model for future sustainable land use

By Patrick Krause, Chief Executive, Scottish Crofting Federation

In my last column I pointed out how poorly received the Scottish Government’s consultation on an agriculture bill has been. Many agriculture policy advisory groups, not least the Farming and Food Production Future Policy Group and the Farmer-led Climate Change Groups, put considerable time and effort into drafting detailed recommendations for Scottish Government, yet, more than six years after the decision to leave the EU, the consultation only raises vague and often leading questions as to the powers that are necessary to provide agricultural support. The proposed 4-tier framework and conditionality causes more uncertainty than it explains.

However, we gritted out teeth and prepared a comprehensive response, calling for details on how the Scottish Government is going to use its powers and demanding the support crofting needs, that is omitted from the proposals. The new Scottish Agriculture Policy would be centred around four outcomes: climate change mitigation and adaptation, nature restoration, high-quality food production and rural development, all of which we support, of course. But we are concerned that measures may not be designed with crofting in mind.

Payments across tiers need to be accessible to crofters, including support to active land management in areas of High Nature Value, which invariably face natural constraints and are handicapped by peripherality. Support is needed for naturefriendly traditional practices such as the growing and breeding of heritage varieties and rare breeds, local and high-quality food production and rural development including community building.

Crofting and low-impact agriculture should be at the heart of the new Agricultural Policy. This means that conditions need to be proportional but also that we need to talk about how funds are distributed - for too long agricultural payments have favoured the largest businesses. Crofting is delivering on the vision of the Scottish Government, and it is now up to the Government to better support crofting.