Will energy production prove to be a panacea for farmers’ ills?

 

SINCE TIME immemorial, farmers have proved to be a most adaptable race, as feeding the nation has become an ever more complex occupation over the centuries. Now and in the future, however, that is going to be tested to the bare metal as feeding the nation is not seen to be enough; farmers will now be expected to provide the energy to power the nation as well!

To help facilitate this production sea change, though, government has stepped up to the mark with on-going production incentives through its Feed-In-Tarriff scheme which commences on April 1 and which make wind, hydro and solar schemes all the more viable.

Certainly, Scotland is unique in its infrastructure to provide masses of energy from the first two named sources, though the solar option might not prove so attractive in such a wind and rain ravaged country as ours.

While attractive incentives might now be in place – installation grants may also be available from the Energy Savings Trust – the communication of these to the farming industry has lacked joined-up thinking.

If farmers are, indeed, expected to provide the nation’s power in ever greater amounts, they need to be wooed, not only with money, but also with information, which by its very nature will have a degree of technicality outwith the bounds of a normal farming brain.

And, if this technology and the education gap can be adequately bridged, then changing a farmer’s mind set from food production-based incentives to energy-based ones will prove to be a dawdle!