AMIDST the welter of Brexit politics unleashed this week, one worrying fact stood out – no-one, neither Westminster nor Holyrood, has committed to fund the Less Favoured Area Support Scheme beyond this year.

As things stand, this vital scheme for upland stock farmers is not covered by Chancellor Philip Hammond's guarantee of CAP continuity up til 2020. But he can only reasonably be held to account for 30% of the LFASS budget, as that is the proportion that has historically come via the EU.

The remaining 70% has long been covered by successive Scottish governments, but in the wider upheaval of the Brexit preparations and changes in how Scotland funds its public spending, there has yet to be a clear statement from ScotGov on the matter.

Last weekend, the industry could not help but welcome Mr Hammond's pledge that Pillar One farm support budgets would be maintained until 2020 – although with Article 50's two-year exit countdown yet to be triggered, it seems likely that the Chancellor was just putting a positive spin on the fact that the UK and its farmers will likely be in the EU system up til 2019, and as such, his 2020 pledge could amount to no more than a guarantee of one transitional year's worth of EU-level payments.

But it is Mr Hammond's lesser pledge with regard to the Pillar Two EU budget – that EU funding would be matched for all agri-environment and structural schemes agreed before this year's Autumn statement – that carries the sting for LFASS recipients.

Unlike most of the schemes funded from Pillar Two, LFASS has to be applied for yearly, and while participants in five-year agri-environment contracts signed before this autumn can rest easy that the cheques will keep coming, the many hill farmers planning to claim their annual LFASS on next spring's SAF have no such guarantee.

The LFASS question was one that NFU Scotland was urgently asking as The Scottish Farmer went to press, with union officials meeting with the Secretary of State for Scotland, David Mundell, on an East Lothian farm, at the same time as a letter on the topic winged its way to Scottish finance secretary, Derek Mackay.

"We are not interested in the political argument about which government does what," said an NFUS insider. "We just need a clear commitment that this vital scheme will continue to be funded, at least up until 2020, while industry and governments work towards a new non-EU farm support system."

Speaking ahead of his meeting with Mr Mundell, NFUS president Allan Bowie commented: “While the UK Government’s intention is that devolved administrations should get the same money as would otherwise have come to them had the UK remained in the EU we need to know how the UK Government will do this.

“And although the Treasury has guaranteed payments for direct support (Pillar 1) such as the basic payment scheme, greening, sheep coupled and cattle coupled support up to 2020, there has been no commitment for rural development (Pillar 2) funding, which includes the vital LFASS and agri-environment schemes.

“LFASS and agri-environment schemes are a way of recognising market failure while delivering public benefits and funding for these schemes needs to be guaranteed in the same way that funding for direct payments has been."