Scotland’s 11,500 hill farmers will receive £55 million of vital support payments in March as usual, the Scottish Government has confirmed.
The news is a huge relief to the country’s most remote and disadvantaged producers who expected their Less Favoured Areas Support (LFASS) to be delayed by weeks or even months, following problems with the Government’s labouring IT system which has held up basic payments to the majority of Scottish farmers.
However, the computer is being bypassed for LFASS and national funds are to be used to ensure hill farmers receive their payments by the end of the month.
Scottish Rural Affairs secretary Richard Lochhead pulled the rabbit out of the hat during a meeting with stakeholders in Edinburgh.
“Given the importance of LFASS to Scottish agriculture, the Scottish Government’s view which was supported by industry is that this should be a priority,” he said.
“Our nationally-funded scheme for LFASS claimants will see almost 11,500 farm businesses in Scotland’s most remote and fragile areas automatically get a payment, injecting almost £55m more into Scotland’s rural economy over the coming weeks.”
The majority of LFASS claimants will receive a payment worth 90% of last year’s claim, while another 1,400 crofters and small farmers who are eligible for the minimum LFASS payment of £385 will receive that in full.
The level of payment to the remainder of eligible claimants will depend on various factors including changes to their land since 2014.
Scottish Tenant Farmers Association (STFA) chairman Christopher Nicholson welcomed the news.
“This will provide vital liquidity to Scottish agriculture at a time when farm cash flows are under pressure,” he said.
However NFU Scotland (NFUS) described the measure as a “stepping stone” and called for a similar approach to be taken with the bigger basic payment scheme.
NFUS president Allan Bowie said: “Failure to deliver basic payments under the new CAP scheme remains the biggest single reason why, when compared to March 2015, the gaping hole in the Scottish rural economy is a staggering £365m and farmers, crofters, agricultural suppliers and banks are carrying the debt,” he said.
Mr Lochhead reaffirmed the Government was doing everything in its power to make as many farm payments as possible within the EU payment window which runs until June 30.