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Meeting of the Parliament 18 January 2012

18 Jan 2012 · S4 · Meeting of the Parliament

Item of business

Common Agricultural Policy (Reform)

Urquhart, Jean SNP Highlands and Islands Watch on SPTV

Farming and rural communities will welcome the programme of meetings that are being held across the country, and the invitation to submit recommendations. It is important that there be the widest-possible consultation on common agricultural policy reform.

Our farmers and crofters desire to be heard and must be listened to. Without their experience, and without an understanding of the practical implications of legislation—including electronic identification and funding mechanisms such as pillars 1 and 2—we will have little hope of getting it right this time round.

It is also important that we take cognisance of how rural development LEADER funding has contributed to economic activity through community companies, social enterprises and the growing third sector. There is evidence of entrepreneurship, which in many cases adds value to farmers’ raw products.

As complex as the CAP is, the people whose livelihoods depend on it are central to the industry’s future. The industry can deliver not only strong communities in rural and often remote areas, but the sustained high-quality food production for which Scotland has a growing and strengthening reputation. To not get CAP reform right for Scotland is simply not an option.

Agriculture policy in the coming decades will be shaped first and foremost by the following factors: the need to meet the rising demand for food and non-food crops in a globalised world, the need to create and preserve vital and attractive rural regions, and the need to conserve biodiversity and to adapt to the requirements of climate change.

It is right that we acknowledge agriculture’s importance. In recent times there has been a change in people’s interest in living in rural areas in certain parts of the Highlands and Islands. Incentives that build on such interest and which attract younger folk to tenant farms or the croft entrant scheme are to be encouraged, and CAP reform must not act as a disincentive. We are at only the beginning of the road and we need to attract special people—creative thinkers who are multiskilled and committed to continuing a tradition while finding working patterns that are acceptable in the 21st century.

If CAP reform is about anything, it should be about equity and fairness. Reform presents an opportunity to simplify overcomplicated processes and calculations, to ensure equality in the food chain between large and small farmers and crofters, and to end the historical model of support that created slipper farmers. It is not acceptable that inactivity should attract substantial grants when we cannot offer credible support to guarantee continued employment or to assist new entrants to the scheme.

Education programmes to introduce young people to the land are hugely successful and awaken an interest not only in those who have previous connections to the land.

Farming contributes massively to our tourism industry. I often describe tourism as the hugely important by-product of land management, agriculture, environmental programmes, conservation, traditions, development and contemporary life in Scotland. Highland cattle, red deer, belted Galloways, Aberdeen Angus cattle, sheep of every kind and other farmed animals have become the subject of postcards. Colin Baxter has even photographed them in the rain, which has become almost acceptable. I mention tourism because it has a strong role in our food industry. Scotland’s table of hospitality is the outcome of all that we will argue for in CAP reform.

Tourism is set to break barriers this year, which must be important to the food and drink sector. As the marketing and exporting of our quality produce become ever more successful, it is essential that we support the primary producers, who are the key to our continued success. The CAP must recognise that importance and, in turn, reflect it in financial support.

As we have heard, Scotland has not had a fair share of the agricultural budget and nor have we equitably shared the little that has come through the UK representations. It is with those failings in mind that we consider reform of the CAP. It is important for everyone in the industry to compare and contrast what our share might be if we made our case as an independent country. I make no apology to Mary Scanlon for mentioning constitutional reform. Alex Fergusson wondered how we might get a greater, and justified, share of the cake. I ask him and all the members who are in opposition to the Government to consider the likely income to our farmers and crofters were Scotland to become independent.

16:06

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Meeting of the Parliament 18 January 2012

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