“UNLESS the UK government recognises its responsibility to repatriate the misdirected convergence money then we will be forced to find it from somewhere else” – so said Cabinet Secretary Fergus Ewing, calling on the UK Treasury to dig into its pockets to make up the shortfall in support for Scottish hill farmers.

Failing the return of that convergence cash, Mr Ewing said he would be faced with ‘difficult decisions’ about taking money from elsewhere within the Scottish agricultural budget to make good on his pledge to maintain the Less Favoured Area Support Scheme.

According to agricultural policy advisor Jeremy Moody, speaking ahead of this week’s Farming Scotland Conference, any rebalancing of Scotland’s farm subsidy budget after Brexit could be expected to see significant money moved away from better quality agricultural land to plug the funding gap in the LFAs.

“The Scottish Government wants to protect LFASS but will have to make decisions about how it funds and cuts the subsidy cake,” explained Mr Moody. “Without new money being made available, the conclusion that money would have to be shifted towards LFA from the Payment Region 1 BPS pot is a logical one to draw.”

In a press meeting at the annual NFU Scotland conference, Mr Ewing was asked whether, if the UK Government didn’t come up with the convergence cash, he would take money from the arable sector to continue to support hill areas?

“I’m afraid I do need to accept the argument, but not the specific example,” he replied. “The UK Government needs to put their hands in their pockets and deliver the £14,000 per farm due to Scottish farmers and crofters. It is a no-brainer, that if this fails to happen then we would need to seek additional funding – approximately £12m a year – obviously we need to find it from somewhere.”

Embarking down this route would be a dangerous precedent to set, however, Mr Ewing stressed that difficult decisions are part of his remit and priorities must be decided: “We will be forced to make difficult decisions and that is not something I’ll shy away from. At the end of the day we have to say what the priorities are. Protecting our hill farmers is a priority at the moment; with Brexit as a threat but also concerns over low margins, higher costs and many in the sector already giving up.”

Mr Ewing’s headlining message at the NFUS conference was to stress to farmers that the Scottish Government values their industry and backed that up in monetary terms by investing almost £118m in the sector in the year 2018/19.

“We have devoted over the last year a considerable amount of money in to farming and food production – a total of £117.784 million. The Scottish Government values farming and food production, and food and drink is one, if not our top, growth sector,” he enthused.

“We want to emphasise to farmers today that the Scottish Government values them and we are putting some of the taxpayer’s money where our mouth is,” he concluded