Scots MEP seeks two new tests for support cash

MEP and former NFU Scotland president George Lyon is seeking two new tests for qualification for Less Favoured Area support.

He wants the EU subsidy scheme, which currently has eight criteria for LFA status, to take into account the "isolation" of a farm and the loss of "field capacity days" through bad weather and water-logging.

Lyon said it was vital that isolation and remoteness, including distance from markets, were taken into account. He said if this was not done, fertile areas such as Orkney could be dropped from the new LFA map. "That would make a mockery of the LFA scheme. It is essential that the handicaps faced by producers in island and remote areas of Scotland continue to be properly compensated by LFA payments," he said.

Lyon is also seeking a phasing-out period for any farm that is removed from the LFA scheme.

The amendments will be considered by the European Parliament's agriculture committee. Lyon was hopeful his amendments would be taken on board.

"I am sure the European agriculture committee will vote for these changes and I hope the European Commission, who have said they are open-minded on this matter, will accept them."

Lyon added that he would work to ensure that the Scottish Government had the freedom to fine-tune the areas to be included in the new map defining LFA land in Scotland.