Hansard

I am grateful to Fergus Ewing for that intervention. Believe it or not, in 11 minutes, as somebody who is involved in the sector, I do not have time to cover everything. Otherwise, I would have got more into diversification and the opportunities that there are. I certainly agree with Fergus Ewing’s points. Such a move would be a real opportunity.

Much has been said in debates on this subject about farmers being asset rich but cash poor. It is already a job with inconsistent financial returns. Costs always seem to go up, but yields and prices can fluctuate widely. In some years, we make a modest profit; in other years, we do not. There is an old farming joke about the farmer who wins the lottery and is asked what he is going to do with the money. He says that he will keep farming until it is all gone.

I turn to our amendment to the Scottish Government’s motion. Governments working together requires commitment from both sides, and our amendment calls for just that. The Scottish Government and the UK Government should work together to deliver the ring-fenced multiyear funding that we—and, I think, SNP members—want.

Our amendment recognises that, in Barnettising agricultural funding, Labour has broken with more than 50 years of certainty. It has ended a social contract that recognised the vital role that farmers play in producing food and as stewards of the countryside, and that rewarded that with some stability.

Our amendment calls on the Scottish Government to ensure that all agricultural funding is allocated to the sector, not diverted for use in other portfolio areas. That has not previously been the case. Although the First Minister has repeated the commitment that £46 million of funding will be returned to the agriculture budget, there is still no commitment on when that will happen, and it is disappointing that the cabinet secretary has not committed to a timescale today.

Given the growing pressure on the farming sector, a longer, more concrete commitment from the Scottish Government is needed to protect rural budgets from having much-needed funding siphoned off to plug gaps in other parts of Government spending. Farmers are also worried about the next Scottish budget and what future Scottish policy holds. They see money being taken from rural budgets, including the £46 million that I just mentioned, the £80 million that has been lost from the rural affairs budget overall and the cuts to pillar 1 payments and the less favoured area support scheme. They have seen the impact of the Scottish Greens in government, and they fear what the Greens might extort from a minority SNP Government that is desperate to pass its budget.

Farming has got harder in the past few years—costs have risen and there is more form filling and box ticking than ever before, but there is still pressure to keep costs as low as possible. Despite efforts to become more efficient and meet increasingly stringent environmental targets, farmers, particularly those of us in the red meat sector, feel more under attack than ever.

Many farmers feel that they are not a priority for the Government, and it is hard to argue against that when, in Orkney, nearly £8 million has been spent on a stoat eradication scheme but only a few thousand pounds has been spent on efforts to combat the damage that geese do to farmland in the islands. That is before we start talking about the challenges in relation to access to land; encouraging new entrants to farming; vital local infrastructure, such as abattoirs; and reliable ferries to get products to market. The Scottish Government has responsibility for all those thing but, too often, has been found wanting.

The previous Conservative UK Government delivered multiyear ring-fenced funding, as well as the largest-ever round of grants to support agricultural funding. Labour promised a new deal for farmers, but it has delivered a raw deal that threatens the future of the sector. Anger is at an all-time high, while confidence is low. Those protesting in London and in Kirkwall this morning, as well as those who will be outside this Parliament next Thursday, are not just fighting one bad policy by one bad Government; they are fighting for the very future of farming. Scottish Conservatives will always stand with them, because we will always be on the side of our rural communities and those who live and work in them.

I move amendment S6M-15508.2, to insert at end:

“; recognises that ring-fenced agriculture funding has been delivered by previous UK administrations for over 50 years; urges both the UK and Scottish governments to work together to ensure certainty for Scotland’s farmers, crofters and rural stakeholders by delivering multi-year ring-fenced funding for agriculture, and calls on the Scottish Government to ensure that all agriculture funding is allocated to the sector and not diverted for use in other portfolio areas.”