SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT
Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Islands, Mairi Gougeon
I
am proud to have been asked by the First Minister to lead the Rural Affairs and Islands portfolio for the Scottish Government. I am determined for Scotland’s rural and island areas and industries to play their part in contributing to our net zero ambitions and in enhancing biodiversity. But I also want rural and island economies and communities to benefit from these priorities too – for there to be more inclusive growth; for green skills to create career opportunities; for fair work first principles to be applied. One of the immediate priorities is to create a new system of rural support. By November, I hope we will have agreed a National Test Programme and we will have started to recruit farmers and crofters to take part in that programme. Our core premise is to take forward the recommendations of the Farmer
led Group reports – as our manifesto promises. We will also consult on a new agriculture bill, setting out our vision for this new rural support system, while ensuring future policy stays broadly aligned with the new CAP. We will continue to modernise tenant farming, begin to modernise small landholding legislation and seek to double the amount of land used for organic farming by 2026. We will start work to determine how best to support new and young entrants into farming and by the end of this Parliament we will have doubled annual support for women in agriculture to develop their skills. But the fact remains that no matter what we do to reform, revitalise, and create a fairer and greener rural Scotland, our efforts will be hindered by the UK Government’s reckless decision to pursue a hard Brexit during the pandemic. We warned of the consequences and are now experiencing these daily. The most recent was the threat to animal wellbeing and food supply with the ceasing of production of CO2 and ammonia.
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Throughout it all, the people of rural Scotland demonstrate resilience, innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship. I am determined to harness that so areas like Moray realise their undoubted potential.
