'Pack proposals need green ideas'

ANOTHER example of the wide divide over the future of rural support has emerged with the comments of one of Scotland's leading environmentalists.

Responding as an individual to the Pack proposals, Professor Roger Crofts said they included a major flaw as they tended to be based solely on agriculture.

Instead of just having the more traditional agriculture focus, Crofts wanted to see more support for benefits such as greenhouse gas emissions reduction, water management and security of its supply, food security, biodiversity maintenance and enhancement.

The report does mention these but he claims it then drifts back into traditional farming support.

The Pack report also suggests that proportionately more money goes to the higher grades of land as defined by the Macaulay Land Capability classification.

This proposal according to Crofts takes no account of other factors, such as carbon sequestration and biodiversity maintenance.

"The current thinking needs to be radically revised if the final report is to move the debate forward. First, there needs to be a shift in focus away from agriculture to a broader view of the value of the management of the land and away from support schemes primarily addressing the needs of agriculture to ones which address the other factors.

"It will also need to change the language from agriculture dominance to one of the land as a multi-benefit resource which has to be stewarded carefully with the aid of public financial support."