Union proposes alternatives to Pack

NFU Scotland has put forward an alternative to the Pack Inquiry proposals for support to farmers in officially-designated less favoured areas (LFA) when a new European support regime comes into force after 2013.

The inquiry, commissioned by the Scottish Government and led by former ANM Group chief executive, Brian Pack, proposed a minimal payment for each hectare of LFA land with a top up to encourage sustainable farming based on a new concept of standard labour requirement and headage payments on both calves and lambs.

In a discussion paper issued yesterday, the union said the Pack proposals had met with a "mixed" reception from farmers and that highly stocked farms in particular would see their support considerably reduced resulting in a further reduction in livestock production in Scotland.

"The gut reaction from most people is that the simplified system of support for non-LFA areas proposed by Pack looks attractive but there is a need to debate different ideas for the LFA where the move from a historic basis to an area based system could cause most distortion," said NFUS president, Jim McLaren, pictured below.

"Our principal concern is to ensure that the future Single Farm Payment reflects the farming activity on the farm and that support reflects activity levels."

The union proposal is that the current classification system for Less Favoured Area Support Scheme (LFASS) payments should be used for determining the SFP. This would allow less favoured areas to be categorised into standard, fragile and very fragile areas and sub-divided into four grazing areas reflecting the grazing capacity of the land.

He welcomed the Pack report which had made a very good case for agricultural support but pointed out that with two years of negotiations ahead, and 27 countries in the European Union with different priorities, it was important to keep an open mind at this stage and consider different options.

One of the biggest concerns was the size of the future EU budget for the Common Agricultural Policy and he was concerned about comments from UK farm minister, Caroline Spelman, who seemed to be advocating a move away from direct support for agriculture at a time when food security was moving up the political agenda.

l The union's two vice-presidents, Nigel Miller, of Stow, Midlothian, and Alan Bowie, of St Andrews, have thrown their hats into the ring for the presidency to succeed McLaren who completes his four-year term as president at the union's annual meeting next February.

Bowie is hedging his bets by also putting his name forward for re-election as a vice-president if his bid for the top job fails