Less favoured areas payment lifeline

Farmers and crofters in Scotland’s remote and inhospitable regions will start to receive their share of more than £65 million of support next week under the Less Favoured Areas Support Scheme (LFASS).

Announcing that the 9000 farmers and crofters who applied would see their payments restored to previous levels, Rural Affairs Secretary Mairi Gougeon said the sector had helped ensure the nation was fed through Brexit and Covid.

“It’s important that we can continue to give them security by providing them with the cash flow they need to continue operating and this funding will help us do that.”

NFU Scotland welcomed the lifeline payments and the fact that they had been reinstated to their 2018 level after several years of cuts and that the £65 million budget was secured through to 2024.

Stating that the scheme had been a lobbying priority of the union, LFA committee chair Robert Macdonald said: “All farmers face significant cost challenges for feed, fertiliser and fuel this spring and this support will ensure that those in our Less Favoured Areas will continue to deliver for the rural economy, local jobs, landscapes, carbon sequestration and biodiversity.”

He said the reinstatement of LFASS support levels to 100 per cent of funds available in 2018 and the guaranteed retention of LFASS from 2021 to 2024 delivered stability to LFA businesses in the coming years.

“That certainty around post-Brexit funding ensures that those farmers and crofters operating in some of the most challenging parts of the country can plan and invest.”