SIR, – Where are the opportunities for young people in agriculture nowadays? How many talented young folk will we lose to urban areas if we cannot provide them with access into farming? These are just some of the questions I have asked myself over the past weeks. 
There is not just a real decline in the number of farm tenancies or share/contract farm agreements available, there are virtually none! 
Where is the first step on the ladder for people trying to get into farming? This problem is putting strain on our industry as it is starved of its lifeblood. 
ScotGov often complain about the average age of farmers being too old; well with no way of getting into a farm for a keen and ambitious young farmer it's no wonder!
Any farms that do come onto the market are valued in the millions; any tenancies or land that becomes available is snapped up by the large scale farmer – leaving only mosses and bogs to be fought over by graziers about who’s sheep gets to nibble on the rashes!.
We need to increase the amount of land being available to young farmers. I see vast swathes of farmland, especially in upland areas, wasting away and going to ruin. 
Surely landowners have a duty to keep their land in agricultural condition? After all, this is what they are being paid their BPS for. And if they don’t want to do it im sure there would be an army of enthusiastic young farmers chapping on their door. 
Unless we see a greater trend towards young folk getting a start in farming we are committing ourselves and the farming industry to a slow and painful death.
Iain Smith
Westlands 
Cupar
Fife