Agriculture Bill consultation welcomed by SLE

Press Release

The launch of a long-awaited consultation on a new Agriculture Bill for Scotland has been welcomed by rural business organisation, Scottish Land & Estates.

The consultation, which has been published by the Scottish Government today, is an important step in shaping the future of farming and land management in Scotland – and the financial support for that – for decades to come.

Scottish Land & Estates said it was pleased that many of the proposals within the consultation chimed with the policies SLE had set out as part of its #Route2050 publication.

Paul Richardson, Policy Adviser (Agriculture & Climate Change) at Scottish Land & Estates, said: 

 “Progress on agriculture and post-CAP public support for land management in Scotland has been long awaited and we are pleased that this consultation has finally been launched. 

“There is a huge challenge for decades to come in balancing three key demands from Scotland’s land: ensuring food security and sustaining high quality food production, using land to tackle climate change and finally, reversing the substantial biodiversity loss of recent decades. 

“Our organisation had said previously that 50% of payments should be made to support active farming businesses, with the additional support available for measures to improve biodiversity, carbon sequestration and wider natural capital. SLE’s Route2050 policy paper, recently published at the Royal Highland Show, detailed why we needed to take an integrated approach to land use to simultaneously achieve these three key demands.

“The government appears to be aligned with our thinking but it will be important to work through the precise detail of what is proposed in the coming months. It is vital that the views of those with practical land management experience - Scotland’s farmers, crofters, and land managers -  are taken account of by government as they will be critical to delivering significant public goods in the coming decades. To ensure we get the maximum output from our land use, these groups will need financial support as well as assistance to innovate.” 

To read SLE’s #Route2050 ‘On Track for Rural Scotland’ strategy, click here.