Scotland Insight 2022 PRINT 15.3.22 - Flipbook - Page 7
This transformational vision aims to make Scotland
a global leader in sustainable and regenerative
agriculture. The publication states: Scotland will have
a support framework that delivers high quality food
production, climate mitigation and adaptation, and
nature restoration. High quality nutritious food locally
and sustainably produced is key to our wellbeing.
Underpinned by several values and principles, which
include:
•
remaining committed to supporting active farmers
and food production with direct payments
•
integrating enhanced conditionality of at least half
of all funding for farming and crofting by 2025
•
as part of conditionality, recipients of funding need
to deliver on targeted outcomes for biodiversity
gain and low emissions production
•
develop policy, regulation and support mechanisms
which deliver emissions reductions in line with
Government climate targets and net zero ambitions
•
design mechanisms to support outcomes that
restore nature, benefit natural capital and promote
the natural economy
•
adopt an evidence based whole farm approach,
including learning from other nations
•
where practical, stay aligned with new EU measures
and policy developments
National Test Programme from Spring 2022
More needs to be done with more urgency and to
balance the needs of the whole industry – the national
test programme will seek to do this with a twin track
approach:
Track One
To encourage farmers to improve their knowledge of
current environmental performance and efficiency.
Support will encourage businesses to establish
a baseline of information and understanding in
sustainable agriculture.
Track Two
The purpose of Track 2 is to design, test and standardise
the tools, support and process necessary to reward
farmers and land managers for the climate and
biodiversity outcomes they deliver. Once the tools have
been tested, they can be rolled out to all farmers.
The programme will begin in 2022, a phased approach
to rolling out measures for current recipients of
farm support payments, with the aim of becoming a
mandatory requirement for support.
Key Themes
In future, Scottish Government expect conditionality to
apply to key core themes including:
•
greenhouse gas emissions
To achieve this vision, Government will work alongside
farmers and land managers to ensure they have the
right support to achieve a number of outcomes, which
include:
•
biodiversity audits
•
soil testing
•
nutrient and forage plans and
•
encouraging more farmers to farm organically
•
animal health and welfare plans
•
improve business resilience, efficiency, and
productivity through the use of technology &
innovation
The key goal is sustainable food production - to produce
more from less.
•
accelerate the adoption of approaches which
minimise, reduce, and remove the use of
agrochemical inputs
•
enable more local employment on the land, more
women to enter farming and more new and young
entrants to farming
Initially these themes will be tested in the National
Test Programme with the aim of having a replacement
framework and legislation in place for implementation
from 2026.
•
encourage co-operative approaches to optimise
collaboration and knowledge exchange
With a short-term focus and priority on the sectors with
the highest emissions, including livestock production –
the national test programme will prioritise these sectors.
The team at youngsPRS will be keeping a close eye
on the implementation of the new “vision” and will
keep our clients up to date with opportunities and
requirements as things develop.
If you would like to dicuss this or any other
Government Grants and Schemes contact our
Dumfries office on:
01387 402277 | dumfries@youngsrps.com.
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