Crofting

With changes to agricultural support coming into effect from 2025, Scottish Government is calling on the agriculture sector to help us shape the detail of future of support and how it is delivered.

Supporting farmers and crofters to produce food more sustainably, work with nature and reduce emissions is at the heart of new draft legislation.

The Agriculture and Rural Communities Bill will reform how the government will support farming and food production in Scotland. It will legislate to introduce a new framework of support to replace the current Common Agricultural Policy.

An independent analysis of the responses to the consultation on proposals for a new Agriculture Bill, “Delivering our Vision for Scottish Agriculture. Proposals for a new Agriculture Bill”, which was open from 29 August until 5 December 2022 have been published. 

Scotland’s first ever National Islands Plan (NIP) was published in 2019 and it is now going through its first review.

Scottish agricultural charity RSABI has announced the appointment of Pauline Macmillan as its new Head of Fundraising.

RSABI provides financial, practical, and emotional support to people involved in Scottish agriculture and, with its workload steadily increasing, the new role will be vital to help ensure RSABI has the income needed to meet expected demand in the coming years.

Targets for nature recovery could be put into law in line with those for climate change, as part of a range of proposals to protect and restore Scotland’s natural environment.

The Scottish Government is asking for views on its plans and actions to accelerate nature restoration and regeneration. The consultation sets out the key elements of Scotland’s overall Biodiversity Framework, including:

Scottish farming businesses will see support payments start to reach their bank accounts this week, two weeks ahead of last year’s first payments.