The way the Single Farm Payment is paid will change in the future

SFP by JA on 07 January 2010 01:50

The sooner payment of the SFP is changed to amore equitable system the better.Payment should be made to active farmers only on the basis of the area of land they manage on a yearly basis. The historical element of the current must be abolished as there can be no justification in it's continuation.Payment should be allocated on the basis of land quality with two simple distinctions, namely rough grazing and all other agricultural land. Payment rate on Rough grazing should be one fifth of the rate payable on all other agricultural land and the total payment to any one business should be capped at say £30,000. The current levels of support are a significant distortion to the development of sensible agriculture policies on farms and the SFP should be veiwed as a social payment only, recognising the fact that all farmers have a role to play in managing the countryside for the good of the nation. Until market forces are allowed to play a significant part in the financial performance of farm businesses there will be no significant inovative evolutionary development of the agricultural industry and the Scottish countryside. They must be allowed to evolve organically with in the real world, SFP should only be a safety net and other forms of support such as LMO and SRDP RP should be seen as ways of encouraging development along the lines of Gov policy and desires. I believe that it is in the interests of the agricultural community to allow SRDP funding to be used for the development of non farming businesses in the rural environment also. A diversity of businesses i the countryside provides a more sustainable rural community and a diverse range of population and employment opportunities for all who live in the countryside. It will also allow the sustainable development of more small scale part time farmers ensuring existing smaller family farms continue to play a part in the agricultural out put of this nation.

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