Rural Payments and Services

STORY ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON 19/12/14

Scotland’s rural development programme will open to applications in early 2015, Rural Affairs Secretary Richard Lochhead has confirmed.

The Scottish Government has published its timetable for the Scottish Rural Development Programme (SRDP) 2015-2020 which will support Scottish farming, food production, rural communities and the environment. Although the SRDP is still subject to final European approval, the first schemes will open to applications in January.

Mr Lochhead has also confirmed today:

- A simplification of the minimum activity rules that farmers will need to meet to qualify for CAP direct payments on rough grazing land

- Updated cross compliance guidance is now available on the Scottish Government website

- A new, better targeted approach to addressing Nitrate Vulnerable Zones (NVZs) will see more than 2,000 farms fully or partially removed from NVZ designated areas and the designation of two new NVZs.

The Cabinet Secretary said:

“Scotland’s rural development programme provides crucial support for Scottish farming, food production, rural communities and the environment, and is worth £1.3 billion over the next six years.

“However the European sign-off process is proving disappointingly slow, with only three out of 118 rural development programmes across the whole of Europe agreed so far and the new SRDP now not expected to be formally approved until next summer.

“To avoid any unnecessary delay or disruption to payments I have decided to get the ball rolling and begin accepting applications to various SRDP schemes early in 2015, so that the Scottish Government is ready to pay out at the earliest opportunity once the programme is approved.

“Although our transition arrangements will prevent this delay from having much impact, clearly this is far from ideal. It is yet another example of the difficulties we are facing because of the challenging European timetable and delays in getting advice from EU officials about the fine detail of this new, more complex CAP. It is important to point out that the sticking points are detailed technical measures and not the big CAP policy decisions I took in June. However, the uncertainty caused by repeated Commission requests to change our plans is disruptive for both farmers and administrations.

“It underlines the need to be able to review and amend the implementation detail in the next year or two, and I have written to the new Agricultural Commissioner both to draw attention to this unhelpful uncertainty and to press the review point.”

On the changes to NVZs, Mr Lochhead added:

“Scotland has a magnificent natural environment which is intrinsic to the success of our world famous food and drink, and tourism sectors. We must therefore do all we can to protect the quality of our water.

“Scotland’s approach to protecting our water environment is already admired by many countries, and the action taken so far by Scottish farmers – in partnership with the Scottish Government, our agencies and other stakeholders – has already led to improvements in practices affecting water quality.

“The changes I am announcing today will enable us to build on the progress made so far whilst, at the same time, reducing Scotland’s NVZ areas by 24 per cent.

“My officials will shortly be writing to the 2,212 farm businesses coming out of current NVZs, to inform them of the update and any action they need to take – as well as writing to the 130 or so farms coming into the new NVZ areas in 2016 explaining the support and training on offer.

“Although water quality is improving across Scotland we cannot afford to rest on our laurels. Every farmer must continue to do their best to minimise nitrate and diffuse pollution as we implement these new NVZ regulations in tandem with Scotland’s greenest ever Common Agricultural Policy."