Road Ahead for Scotland … long and tortuous

The 108 pages of proposals that were described by the Scottish Government as providing a route towards a more sustainable agricultural industry in Scotland may take a long time to come to fruition.

While Pack said he wanted to see any changes made as quickly as possible - "the proposals are better than what we have at present so why delay any change?" - he accepted the road to reform of Common Agricultural Policy was tortuous.

Jim McLaren, NFU Scotland president, says that even with a favourable wind, it could be 2020 before the new CAP was actually in place.

First, there will need to be a decision on the overall UK position. David Barnes of the Scottish Government said that so far, the UK coalition had not come out with a policy for CAP reform. This might make it easier to strengthen the relative importance of the Scottish agenda within the UK priorities.