Still time to take part in the future Agriculture Bill consultation

There is still time to take part in the future Agriculture Bill consultation which closes on the 5th December 2022! 

The Scottish Government is committed to realising its Vision for Agriculture and transforming how they support farming and food production in Scotland to become a global leader in sustainable and regenerative agriculture.

Recent years have seen a series of global shocks that have had, and are continuing to have, an impact on global food security. These include EU-exit impacts, the COVID-19 pandemic and, most recently, the illegal invasion of Ukraine which is having an undeniable impact on global agriculture and upon all aspects of our domestic food and drink supply chain. This has highlighted the requirement for the new Agriculture Bill to be adaptive in supporting farmers, crofter and land managers in the near, medium and long term future and the proposals outlined below reflect this.

While we deal with the short-term challenges, we need to keep an eye to the long-term and the action needed now to ensure we have a healthy environment and thriving communities for years to come. We are committed to tackling the climate and biodiversity crises and reaching Net Zero by 2045.  Our agricultural sector has an indispensable role to play as we address these challenges and we will continue to support these efforts.

Mairi Gougeon, Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and Islands said:

"Scotland’s farmers, crofters and land-managers are vital to our ambition to make our nation fairer and greener. We should not shy away from being clear that we are on a journey of significant transformation. I urge everyone to take the opportunity to share your views and engage with this process, and please encourage everyone you know to take part as well. I know many of you will have contributed to the Agricultural transition consultation we ran previously, and this consultation builds on those  responses. Your responses to this consultation will give us tremendous insight into how best to realise our Vision for Agriculture in a way that works for our rural communities."

The new Agriculture Bill aims to enable flexibility whilst ensuring that Scotland’s people are able to live and work sustainably on our land and this framework will deliver key outcomes:

• high quality food production
• climate mitigation and adaptation
• nature restoration
• wider rural development

Read the consultation paper 

A Plain English Summary Guide and Gaelic translation of the consultation document are also available via the above link. 

Scottish Rural Network have supported delivery of a series of face to face and online thematic workshops which have been conducted to provide the opportunity for engagement with the proposals contained in this consultation.  Nourish Scotland have also been running workshops, seeking inpout into the dvelopment of the Bill. 

The consultation closes on the 5th of December and can be found here