NFU SCOTLAND is seeking fresh talks with the Scottish Government over its interpretation of the EU's greening rules.

Despite a long running campaign by the union, it claimed that ScotGov's greening requirements continued to go beyond what was required at EU level, placing Scottish growers at a competitive disadvantage to those south of the Border.

To offer ScotGov a way out, NFUS has mapped out a list of changes which it believes would meet European requirements while bringing the restrictions placed on Scottish growers into line with farmers elsewhere – and has requested a further meeting with the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Economy, Fergus Ewing, to discuss these changes.

It has also invited the Cabinet Secretary for the Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform, Roseanna Cunningham, to visit an arable farm in the New Year to view the environmental benefits such farms produce, and also see the impact that gold-plated greening is having on Scottish growers.

NFUS president Allan Bowie said: “Despite a huge lobbying effort from officeholders, staff and members, securing changes to Scotland’s interpretation of greening rules has been a long, hard slog. After eight months of claiming that it was acting in accordance with EU rules, the Scottish Government finally conceded in February 2016 that its requirement for EFA Green Cover to be incorporated into the soil was home-grown gold-plating. Faced with overwhelming evidence of the environmental benefits of no-till and minimum tillage systems, the requirement was finally dropped.

“On EFA fallow, we have written to Fergus Ewing and shown him first hand on farm how removal of gold-plating would benefit Scottish growers and still fit with the European Commission’s simplification plans for greening. Our case was strengthened, and the Cabinet Secretary was written to again at the end of October, when the Commission confirmed that aligning Scotland’s rules on EFA Fallow management with England’s would be compatible with EU legislation," said Mr Bowie.

“These common-sense changes to Scottish rules would allow mechanical control of weeds, the topping of green cover and drainage work to be carried out during the fallow period – activities that have been banned on EFA fallow in Scotland during 2015 or 2016 but have been permitted in England.

“Europe’s approach to Greening is changing and Scotland must come into line," he suggested. "The EC’s proposed changes to Greening were leaked in June and contained many positive developments. However, the EU Commission is continuing to press for a ban on the use of Plant Protection Products on EFA fallow, cover crops, catch crops and Nitrogen Fixing Crops. That is a concern that NFUS has raised with Mr Ewing and has been working with the other UK farming unions to try to stop.

“Looking beyond Brexit, we are also putting down markers on the sort of appropriate environmental requirements that might be attached to future agricultural support," he added. "That process involves building up an evidence base on how effective existing Greening rules have been and pulling together wider evidence of the many environmental benefits that Scottish agriculture already delivers.”