Sir, – I don't envy the IT development work necessary for the proposed agricultural policy changes.

Co-mingling net zero carbon, enriched ecology and greater food production efficiency is a complex challenge. This is quite different from being complicated which, although difficult to understand, with some effort becomes knowable.

Complexity describes interactions between imperfectly known/specified factors, where the number of these will increase exponentially quickly making it infeasible to understand their interactions, causes and effects.

It is impossible for 'software wonks', or anyone else for that matter, to even begin to understand the nature of such complexity, and software simply becomes another contributory factor.

The solution is not to try ever harder at unpicking complexity but rather to accept and tolerate a degree of ambiguity, to design adaptable and flexible management systems for quickly identifying and responding to problems rather than trying to measure and predict to the nth degree in advance.

This means simplifying where possible but also decentralising to make better use of local knowledge to interpret and react to changing conditions, utilising trust and co-operation rather than inflexible, top-down prescriptions.

In Scotland, we have multiple talent throughout our industry, including software engineers, already working with government to develop and implement solutions to manage complexity. They can help to design future payment support and other incentives towards our industry's greatest challenge – to feed the nation whilst enhancing the environment – at a fraction of the software costs currently proposed.

Bob Yuill, Director of ScotEID