In the Face of Climate Change, Embrace Resilience: Why Scottish Farmers Must Seize the Opportunity of Policy Transition
SLE's Senior Policy Adviser for Agriculture and Climate Change, Eleanor Kay, explores some of the challenges and opportunities ahead for Scotland's farmers against a backdrop of a changing climate and evolving government policy.
It remains frustrating to everyone within Scottish farming that there is little detail available on the future support framework from 2026.
The introduction of the Agriculture Bill this autumn is also keenly awaited but this won’t provide clarity on future support as it’s a framework bill, with the fine detail to follow in secondary legislation to come. However, we know enough about the direction of travel to start making plans. Regardless of the conditionality applied to Tier 1 and Tier 2 of the future scheme, there is a clear reason to start making plans - climate change.
It is increasingly clear that global warming is unlikely to be limited to 1.5 degrees centigrade - and even if it is, there will still be considerable changes to the environment Scottish farmers have to work in. The UK Climate Projects for Scotland offer a clear summary of how things have already changed and what to expect in the future.
The impact of climate change on our current farming systems has no link to whether Scotland achieves its net zero targets. Climate change is a very real threat to the sector, but it comes with opportunities - provided farms have a plan. Doing nothing is not a sensible business approach but that doesn’t mean we must rush to make changes. Instead, we want to see farms making the most of the transition period in the Agricultural Reform Route Map. Farmers should be using the ‘Preparing for Sustainable Farming’ scheme to aid the assessment of current farming systems and identify holding specific risks as a result of climate change and priorities to build resilience.
It is only after assessing risks and potential opportunities that farms can start to work out what work should be prioritised for the goal of resilient business and ultimately profitability. This exercise can help farms make smart decisions when the new agriculture policy is introduced from 2026 and we are all faced with a very long list of Tier 2 options, or indeed make a start now rather than wait for legislation if it is right for your farm. This could mean improving soils, making plans for water management, planting trees where appropriate, improving livestock productivity, genetic diversity for crops or animals, disease control and making better use of data. All things which reduce emissions but more importantly for your business, have been shown to increase productivity and gross margins.
This does not need to be an overwhelming prospect and it is understandable why many want to wait for detail on the future support scheme and payment rates. That shouldn’t prevent us from assessing what our individual holdings will require and making the most of the support available. The scale of the challenge cannot be underestimated but that does not mean scare tactics need to be adopted to spark behaviour change. We know that rational arguments can be made for adaptation and mitigation to climate change that, in the long run, make economic sense. Government programmes such as ‘Farming for a Better Climate’, the Farm Advisory Service and NatureScot’s Farming with Nature network all have excellent case studies and data that need to be shared widely. It’s clear that future resilience in agriculture will require skills, training and expert advice.
We welcomed the objectives of the ‘Preparing for Sustainable Farming’ scheme but are concerned that payment rates are not sufficient. We want to see increased support for on-farm baselining of soil health, carbon footprint and biodiversity to ensure farms have the best opportunity to show improvements when new policy is introduced. This is also why we have long supported the potential for Whole Farm Plans to improve efficiency on farm and future-proof businesses, provided they focus on strategic issues rather than legislative requirements.
Rather than waiting for new policies to emerge, farms should utilise the tools offered by the transition to make the best plan for their farming business to shape their future resilience ahead of new policies. The Scottish Government committed in 2019 to achieving net zero emissions by 2045. It was clear in the New Leadership – A Fresh Start prospectus the objective of addressing climate change will be woven through all policy and we should expect the next Programme for Government to reflect this too.
We know that the Scottish Government wants to see sustainable, regenerative agriculture, but that will mean different things for each holding. We hope that the Scottish Government will understand that improved communication and flexibility will be key to the success of the future support framework and how it delivers for the national climate targets.
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