The new Scottish Agriculture Bill is out – but we at SAOS believe there's something missing

The Agriculture Bill is out – but what is it about?  Our ‘relatively new recruit’ David Michie (who has many years’ experience in agricultural policy) enlightens us:

The Scottish Agriculture Bill has been laid before Parliament. Finally, many of you might think, some details on schemes! Not quite, and not yet. This Bill is not about detail. It is about setting up powers and creating a framework for future schemes. Details on schemes will come later, when the government produces a five-year Rural Support Plan. This will be through separate, secondary legislation.

So what does this Bill mean for future farming policy?

For me, the most important details in this Bill are the government’s four ‘policy outcomes’. All future policy will be geared towards making these happen. They are:

1. The adoption and use of sustainable and regenerative agricultural practices
2. The production of high-quality food
3. The facilitation of on-farm nature restoration, climate mitigation and adaptation
4. Enabling rural communities to thrive.

At SAOS, we welcome and endorse these. It is really good to see this rhetoric down in black and white. We think policy is needed to support rural communities, food production, practices that protect and restore the natural environment, and tackle climate change. 

But something is missing. Something that is essential for farm business resilience, enabling farmers to farm, to reduce their reliance on support payments in the longer term, and to tackle our environmental challenges. We think there should be an additional policy outcome: Improving the position of farmers in the food chain.

Fairer returns from the supply chain are essential

Food and drink supply chains do not favour primary producers. The position of farmers in the value chain must be strengthened to enable viable farm incomes, create resilience in the Scottish agricultural sector, and enhance sustainable, long-term, food security. This can be done by encouraging co-operation and pooled resources involving and benefiting farmers, as well as by promoting short supply chains and improving market transparency.

We think that, with all the noise around ‘direct payments versus environmental payments’, the importance of having fairer market returns has been neglected. We think that co-operation - pooling resources to achieve more strength and fairer supply chains, can address both farming income and environmental challenges. Adding this as an outcome will also enable Scottish Government to ‘keep pace’ with the EU – which they have stated as a government priority. ‘Improve the position of farmers in the food chain’ is a key outcome from the EU’s current Common Agriculture Policy.

In real terms, the financial value of policy support (BPS and the various other schemes) has reduced significantly within this SRDP (the Scotland Rural Development Programme – the policy that has been in place since 2015). Supporting Scottish farmers to receive more value from the supply chain is crucial for business resilience against this backdrop of funding decline.

Why farmer co-operation and co-ops are important

Co-ops are about people working together for mutual benefit. Their focus is on strengthening their position and driving value back into the co-op and the local rural community, rather than paying external shareholders.

Each farmer co-op member represents a family farm or small business in a rural community. We know farming co-ops provide significant socio-economic benefits to rural Scotland, and believe that enabling policy for farmer co-operation can support the changes needed to meet government’s environmental obligations at pace and at scale. We believe there is potential for much more farmer co-operation in Scotland, and that policy can make this happen.

Rural Support Plan and Budgets – Making Policy Happen

High-level policy outcomes are very important but can seem a bit abstract. The reality will be the schemes detailed in the Rural Support Plan and, vitally, in commitment to their funding. Government can have all the right policy aspirations that everyone can get behind, but we need money to make them happen. What’s vitally needed is a commitment for multi-annual payments that go alongside the five-year Rural Support Plan, and for the government to set out clearly how funding will be used to meet its objectives. This would provide certainty for farm businesses and encourage strategic innovation and investment.

SAOS will respond to the Agriculture and Rural Communities (Bill) Scotland consultation, making these points and asking that co-operation and value from the supply chain are included. With all the changes happening, a fair deal for farmers is essential for the resilience of farmers’ and crofters’ businesses in Scotland.