STFA says support should go to those who produce food

IN THE latest response to the Pack Inquiry into the future of farm support, the Scottish Tenant Farmers' Association has suggested that area-based payments are kept to a minimum and as large a percentage as possible of the subsidy goes into the top-up fund which will provide specific targets for the industry.

This priority would, the STFA claims, encourage land to be let and reduce pressure on rents. However, it then accepts that the top-up fund may not be a suitable model for the arable sector and it has therefore suggested that arable farming should be subject to a separate area-based scheme.

The STFA also supports the quick move to a new system suggested by inquiry chairman Brian Pack as this would allow support payments to be directed towards new entrants.

The STFA supports funding going to those actually producing food and stopping the present haemorrhaging of support cash to those who have either retired or stopped production. They have asked for a rebasing of the current support scheme in order that this can be achieved quickly.

The organisation says: "It has become a scandal that new entrants are still barred from single farm payment and there is general agreement that non-active farmers should no longer receive support payments."

STFA chairman Angus McCall accepted that some of the organisation's suggestions were not permissible under current legislation but said: "We believe that there will be scope to amend these."

He added: "Pack suggests the new scheme should take the form of a contract between producer and government. STFA shares this view and believes the principle that farm payments be attached to the occupier rather than the owner of the land be upheld.

"Whatever shape or form the new system takes, it must encourage a healthy, profitable and vibrant agricultural economy to ensure that agriculture is able to continue to deliver the downstream benefits expected of it.

"Existing businesses must not be destabilised by sudden change and future schemes must encourage and reward farming activity and productivity."