How Scotland’s land is managed is more important than who owns it was a key message at a fringe event on the future of Scotland’s agriculture at the SNP conference in Aberdeen this week.

NFUS policy director Jonnie Hall was joined on a panel at the event along with Rural Affairs Secretary Mairi Gougeon and NFUS President Martin Kennedy.

Addressing a capacity audience, Mr Hall said: “We are less concerned about the concentration of ownership of Scotland’s land, we’re more concerned about how effectively we manage Scotland.

“If we are looking at outcomes in Scotland’s interests, it’s about the management of land and how we collectively manage our resources in that respect and everything we demand of our land – the management of land is far more important than ownership.”

However, one delegate countered that around 500 individuals owning more than half of land in Scotland was “intolerable.”

Mr. Hall added: “Let’s be under no illusion, farmers and crofters recognise they have to put a shoulder to the wheel. We have to make the wheel turn if we are going to get the delivery on those four stated elements of the bill – food, climate, biodiversity, and people.

“But we cannot do that unless we are enabled to do so by better regulation and proper incentive and support to deliver the outcomes required.

“If we get that in place through the legislative process and ultimately how those powers are used and the funding behind that, Scottish agriculture will continue to be the backbone of rural communities the length and breadth of the country.”

The NFUS also called on the next Westminster government to boost the agriculture budget by at least another £1 billion.

The director added: “So many of the things we are talking about delivering on biodiversity, climate, species, and the rest are all public goods. By definition, farmers and crofters don’t sell public goods, they sell food and you can’t get an income from public goods.

“We absolutely need that funding to underpin businesses if we’re going to deliver food production first and foremost, but also deliver the other outcomes around that in a sustainable way.”

The cabinet secretary described the meeting as the most important fringe event of the conference.

She said: “It is also really important because of agriculture policy and where it sits at the moment and given some of the threats we know are facing the industry at the moment.

“Our policy and how we look to deliver food production, but doing that in a way that lowers emissions and enhances nature as well is going to be critical and the decisions we take are going to be really critical.

Ms Gougeon pointed to the publication of the Agriculture Bill and urged industry to read through it, but said it does not set out the details of what the future support scheme will look like. However, she argued the publication sets out the powers needed to deliver a flexible framework and takes steps to deliver the Vision for Agriculture published last year.

Highlighting Brexit, war in the Ukraine, and other future threats, Ms Gougeon said it is important there is flexibility to adapt to challenges.

She said: “Even though it is a flexible framework we have provided, what we have set out in the bill are the plans and obligations of Scottish Ministers to bring forward a rural support plan, and what that will do is set out over a five year period what our priorities will be and delivery of that support.

Comments from the audience covered a number of issues including mental health, food imports, and trade deals.