Agriculture

Part of the debate – in the Scottish Parliament at on 21 June 2017.

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Photo of Mike Rumbles Mike Rumbles Liberal Democrat

Sixty-three thousand people are directly employed in agriculture in Scotland, but more than 1 million people live and work in rural communities that benefit indirectly from European support for our agricultural industries.

I have another figure for you, Presiding Officer: £1 billion. That is the value of EU support that has been due to Scottish farm businesses since the Scottish Government’s debacle over basic payments began more than two years ago. That is money that those working on farms and crofts across the country plan to use years in advance to employ workers, to rent and buy equipment and services and to buy seed and feed for the coming season.

Despite the Scottish Government’s refusal to make a full assessment of the damage to our rural economy, we are now starting to see the depth of its catastrophic handling of farm payments. Payments have been delayed by six months or more, there has been a decrease of 48 per cent in farm incomes, 6,000 farm businesses are still to have their payments processed, a third of farms in Scotland are operating at a loss, and more than £100 million of support payments are still sitting in the Government’s bank account. John Finnie is saying that nothing is perfect.