Listen
Encouragement for would-be farmers
21/06/2007
Government and the farming industry must work together to encourage more people into farming, First Minister Alex Salmond told an audience of young farmers at the Royal Highland Show in Edinburgh tonight.
The FM confirmed the Scottish Government had recently submitted the Scotland Rural Development Programme to the European Commission, and that the Programme includes a £10 million package of measures dedicated to supporting new entrants.
He also confirmed that Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs Richard Lochhead met representatives of the Tenant Farming Forum and had asked them to investigate barriers to entry, identify practical solutions and make recommendations, including how these might be implemented in practice.
Mr Salmond said:
"As with any industry, new entrants - young people with vision, enthusiasm, new ideas and the entrepreneurial skills to put them into practice - are vital to the future development and prosperity of farming. However, it is increasingly difficult for such people to find a way into farming.
"In the new Scotland Rural Development Programme we have included a dedicated New Entrants measure - and when agreement comes forward from Brussels we shall implement this in full. But support for new entrants must be developed further.
"We have therefore asked the Tenant Farming Forum, which represents a wide spectrum of interests within the tenancy sector, to investigate this and report to the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs by the end of the year.
"I am grateful to the Tenant Farming Forum for agreeing to take forward this important task and I look forward to working with them to help more young people enter farming in the coming years."
Agriculture represents 75 per cent of land in Scotland. In 2005, agriculture contributed 1.3 per cent of Scottish gross value added; but its importance is much greater in some regions of rural Scotland.
The industry employs around 45,000 representing 2.2 per cent of the total Scottish workforce - up to 5 per cent in rural areas.
The Tenant Farming Forum is to deliver recommendations to Scottish Ministers by end of the year.
While the Forum's investigation is not limited in scope, the Cabinet Secretary will only consider changes to tenancy terms if other options do not work satisfactorily.
Tenant Forum is an industry-led body independently chaired by Jeff Maxwell OBE. Forum members are senior figures from:
- National Farmers Union of Scotland
- Scottish Rural Property and Business Association
- Scottish Tenant Farmers Association
- Scottish Estates Business Group
- Scottish Association of Young Farmers Clubs
- Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors