Call to combat volatility in food production

With inflationary pressures and global market volatility reaching exceptional levels, NFU Scotland has called for a list of measures to help stabilise the situation to maintain domestic food production levels.

And yesterday the union called on the UK Government to reduce the duty on red diesel to zero to address the rapid increase in fuel prices for critical agricultural operations and to put a cap on gas prices to help ensure the continuity of domestic fertiliser production.

Westminster was also asked to reconsider its current immigration policy and to introduce measures to allow seasonal and permanent farm workers from abroad to take up posts in the UK.

It also called on the Scottish Government to urgently roll out the proposed ‘Track 1’ of the National Test Programme and introduce soil testing and nutrient management planning to enable all farmers and crofters to target and use inputs more efficiently.

The administration was also asked to increase funding of the Sustainable Agricultural Capital Grant Scheme - and to suspend greening requirements such as the EFA rules in order to bring more fallow land back into production.

The union also called for an impact assessment on food production to be a requirement before large-scale forestry grants were approved to avoid undermining the potential for food production and/or increasing costs of food production.

The list also called on retailers to commit to buying Scottish or British produce and to introducing a cost tracker system which would acknowledge the huge increases in costs being borne by farmers.