Leaving either of our two largest markets could be disastrous

Some of those challenges have been due to global markets but many more have been down to poor governance and a lack of support for our rural economy.

Many of your readers will know that my colleagues and I in the Scottish Liberal Democrats have strongly criticised the Scottish Government for its catastrophic mishandling of Scotland’s agricultural sector.

I am proud to say that we have led the Parliament on this issue. We have also outlined a number of measures that could be taken to ensure the rural economy is more successful going forward.

For starters, the Scottish Liberal Democrats want the SNP and the Tories to stop obsessing over Independence and Brexit and get on with the day job. We are the only party fighting for a strong Scotland within the UK and to put the brakes on the hard Tory Brexit. Leaving either of our two largest markets could be disastrous.

Farm income has fallen in each of the past five years. This year alone saw an average decrease of 48% and a third of farm businesses are now operating at a loss.

This is partly due to the Scottish Governments failure to get to grips with its botched Basic Payments computer programme. Despite many broken promises and hundreds of thousands of pounds spent on staff overtime, the £178 million IT system is still inoperable.

On top of that, almost half of our farm businesses have still not received their Basic Payments for 2016/17. Even with the Scottish Government’s loan scheme, it still means that £184 million is missing from the rural economy and is now six months overdue.

That is why the Scottish Liberal Democrats have called on the Scottish Government to commit to targeted support for our rural industries. We want to ensure that every penny of support remains in place post 2020.

Scotland presently receives considerably more CAP support from the EU per head of population than the rest of the UK. This may not continue if the UK Government decides to redistribute those funds using Barnett consequentials. Scotland could end up receiving significantly less financial support and disappointingly the Scottish Government has refused to ring-fence the funds we do receive.

With that in mind, I have argued for a team of specialists to design a system of support that works in the best interest of Scotland’s rural economy. A system of funding that works to Scotland’s agricultural strengths. We want those experts to be invited from the farming community and organisations like NFUS. The Scottish Government agreed to this course of action in February, however progress has been glacial.

We have also seen a poor uptake in other schemes designed to help the rural economy, such as the government’s own Beef Efficiency Scheme. Our research shows that less than half of the match funding available through Pillar 2 of the CAP has been taken up by the Scottish Government.