Martin Kennedy, President of Scotland’s leading agriculture organisation, NFU Scotland, has written to Humza Yousaf MSP, seeking an urgent meeting ahead of budget statement to clarify when and how withdrawn agriculture funds will be returned.
In a letter sent to the First Minister, Humza Yousaf MSP, on Monday 4 December, Martin Kennedy highlighted a series of what the Union is concluding are ‘at best hollow promises’, received from both the previous and current Deputy First Ministers, that withdrawn money for agriculture would rightly be returned to the sector.
Mr Kennedy’s request to meet the First Minister is coming after NFU Scotland received a response from the Deputy First Minister on 29 November rejecting the Union’s proposal that funds be returned swiftly and effectively within the 2023/24 financial year via a top up to Basic Payments and Greening. With this proposal being rejected, Mr Kennedy is looking for an urgent meeting with the First Minister to discuss the situation and urge him to intervene and resolve the matter ahead of the budget statement scheduled for 19 December.
In his letter to the First Minister, Mr Kennedy wrote; “The decision to remove £28 million from the agriculture budget this year truly beggars’ belief, particularly at a time when many farmers and crofters across the country are genuinely struggling to remain viable due to the perfect storm of spiralling production costs, low market returns, volatile
weather, and increasing levels of regulation. Quite frankly, these pressures are becoming unsustainable for many businesses and decisions such as this simply compound the sense of despair.
“This decision comes hard on the heels of a similar move last year by the then Deputy First Minister John Swinney MSP, when he announced that £33 million would be removed from the agriculture budget to meet pressures elsewhere in the Scottish Government’s finances. On both occasions, farmers and crofters have been promised that the monies will be returned but no clarity has been given as to when or how this funding will be delivered.
“Given the plight of our farmers and crofters, what is particularly galling is that, on both occasions, these funding decisions were made with absolutely no consultation or engagement with ourselves or, as far as we understand, any other farming organisation. In my view, this is completely unacceptable and flies in the face of the Scottish Government's recent pledge to have a 'new deal' with business where it has committed to strengthening and deepening co-operation and collaboration. In this context, that pledge has failed spectacularly.
He went on to say; “Whilst I do of course recognise the wider pressure on public finances, the agriculture budget still only represents a tiny proportion of the Scottish Government’s overall expenditure and therefore the impact of such decisions has an extremely disproportionate and potentially devastating impact on the industry’s confidence levels and scope for investment. Providing adequate support to, and investment in, the sector right now will provide a clear signal that the Scottish Government is committed to the long-term future of the country’s primary producers in our endeavours to produce high quality food, address climate change, and support biodiversity recovery.”
Notes for editors
A full copy of the NFU Scotland letter to the First Minster is
attached
Ends
Contact Diana McGowan on 07920 018619