CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Form­al Board Paper 4 25^th Novem­ber 2022

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

FOR DECISION

Title: DELIV­ER­ING OUR VIS­ION FOR SCOT­TISH AGRI­CUL­TURE — PRO­POS­ALS FOR A NEW AGRI­CUL­TURE BILL

Pre­pared by: ANDY FORD, DIR­ECT­OR OF NATURE & CLI­MATE CHANGE

Sum­mary

Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment is con­sult­ing on the future dir­ec­tion of agri­cul­ture (and aspects of wider rur­al devel­op­ment) in Scot­land. The con­sulta­tion now closes on 5^th December.

Recom­mend­a­tion

The Board is asked to:

a) Approve the Park Author­ity response to the Deliv­er­ing our vis­ion for Scot­tish agri­cul­ture – Pro­pos­als for a new Agri­cul­ture Bill consultation.

Intro­duc­tion

1. The Scot­tish Government’s Vis­ion for Agri­cul­ture, pub­lished in March 2022, out­lines the long term vis­ion for farm­ing and food pro­duc­tion in Scot­land. This con­sulta­tion seeks views on the mech­an­isms and powers required to enable an adapt­ive and flex­ible approach to deliv­er­ing the Vis­ion. The pro­posed approach is inten­ded to be able to respond to future chal­lenges and uncer­tain­ties, allow­ing for tailored pro­vi­sions and tar­geted, spe­cif­ic sup­port to be imple­men­ted through sec­ond­ary legis­la­tion poten­tially adap­ted as and when required.

2. Recent events such as EU-exit, the COV­ID-19 pan­dem­ic and the illeg­al inva­sion of Ukraine have high­lighted impacts on food secur­ity and the need to meet more of our food needs sus­tain­ably. While deal­ing with the short-term chal­lenges, the pro­pos­als in the new Bill also address the long-term and the action needed now to tackle the cli­mate and biod­iversity crises and reach­ing net zero by 2045.

3. At a time when it is widely recog­nised land man­age­ment will change to tackle the twin crises, the pro­posed frame­work high­lights the import­ance of sup­port­ing com­munit­ies to ensure a fair and just trans­ition through skills and know­ledge trans­fer, innov­a­tion and advances in tech­no­logy, improv­ing busi­ness resi­li­ence, and wider rur­al development.

4. The con­sulta­tion, ​‘Deliv­er­ing our Vis­ion for Scot­tish Agri­cul­ture – Pro­pos­als for a new Agri­cul­ture Bill’, was launched on 29^th August 2022 and closes on 21^st Novem­ber 2022.

Future pay­ments framework

1. The pro­posed frame­work is struc­tured around 4 tiers: a basic level dir­ect pay­ment; an enhanced level dir­ect pay­ment for busi­nesses that are highly effect­ive in redu­cing green­house gas emis­sions and nature res­tor­a­tion; an elect­ive pay­ment to sup­port tar­geted, loc­a­tion spe­cif­ic actions; and com­ple­ment­ary sup­port for e.g., advis­ory ser­vices, skills devel­op­ment, and monitoring.

2. It is pro­posed there is enhanced con­di­tion­al­ity on 50% of future pay­ments, based on meet­ing cli­mate, biod­iversity, and busi­ness effi­ciency out­comes. Tiers I and 2 are pro­posed to be non-com­pet­it­ive, open to all who meet the eli­gib­il­ity cri­ter­ia. Tiers 3 and 4 would have both non-com­pet­it­ive and focussed, com­pet­it­ive ele­ments. Details of tier require­ments will be described in the sec­ond­ary legis­la­tion and over­arch­ing, enabling powers in the Bill will allow for modi­fic­a­tion as needed.

3. The key out­comes for sup­port, derived from responses to the recent Agri­cul­ture Trans­ition con­sulta­tion, are:

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

4. Many of the cur­rent con­trols on food qual­ity are of EU ori­gin. The Bill pro­poses giv­ing Scot­tish Min­is­ters the power to amend retained EU law, to con­tin­ue and adjust cur­rent sup­port schemes and give new powers to enable pay­ments and grants. It is pro­posed that the Bill enables pay­ments that sup­port, and are con­di­tion­al on, the deliv­ery of cli­mate mit­ig­a­tion and adap­tion, nature recov­ery and integ­rated land­scape scale man­age­ment, such as peat­land and wood­land out­comes on agri­cul­tur­al holdings.

5. Regard­ing wider rur­al devel­op­ment, the Bill pro­poses legis­la­tion that allows for the con­tinu­ation of cur­rent sup­port for eco­nom­ic activ­ity related to land man­age­ment, com­munity-led loc­al devel­op­ment and innov­a­tion and know­ledge sharing.

Skills, Know­ledge Trans­fer and Innovation

1. Recog­nising the work of exist­ing schemes such as the Farm Advis­ory Ser­vice, Mon­it­or Farms Pro­gramme and the Know­ledge Trans­fer and Innov­a­tion Fund, pro­pos­als are to be able to con­tin­ue with provid­ing full sup­port and to estab­lish the powers neces­sary to cre­ate a nation­al, and pos­sibly region­al, reserves to avoid dis­tor­tions of the mar­ket and competition.

Admin­is­tra­tion, Con­trol and Trans­par­ency of Frame­work Data

1. The Bill pro­poses estab­lish­ing the powers neces­sary to set up an annu­al or multi- annu­al budget and an Integ­rated Admin­is­tra­tion and Con­trol Sys­tem (IACS). The sys­tem would allow for col­lect­ing and using data to mon­it­or, eval­u­ate and gain assur­ance regard­ing con­di­tion­al­ity stand­ards, cross com­pli­ance, deliv­ery of tar­geted out­comes and ensure prop­er hand­ling of pub­lic funds.

Agri­cul­tur­al Ten­an­cies and Agri­cul­tur­al Wages

1. Some clauses in the cur­rent legis­la­tion are con­sidered to be a poten­tial bar­ri­er to deliv­er­ing the four out­comes. Cur­rently, a ten­ant farm­er requires their landlord’s agree­ment before they under­take diver­si­fic­a­tion activ­it­ies on their agri­cul­tur­al hold­ing. The rules of good hus­bandry and good estate man­age­ment apply­ing to ten­ant farm­ers and their land­lords have not been updated since they were defines in the Agri­cul­tur­al Hold­ings (Scot­land) Act 1948, whilst some ten­ants and land­lords have amended leases, pro­posed changes would ensure that all can do so. To enable ten­ant farm­ers to adapt and diver­si­fy man­age­ment to meet cli­mate, biod­iversity, and food secur­ity object­ives it is pro­posed that Scot­tish Min­is­ters have the power to amend legis­la­tion. It is also pro­posed that Fair Work con­di­tions, includ­ing the real liv­ing wage are applied to all agri­cul­tur­al workers.

CNPA response to Agri­cul­ture Bill Consultation

CNPA wel­comes the oppor­tun­ity to com­ment at ini­tial stage and, acknow­ledging that land man­agers will need the details soon in order to plan ahead.

1. Do you agree with a mech­an­ism to enable pay­ments to be made under a 4 tiered approach?

   Yes. CNPA agrees with the 4 tiered approach and sup­ports the pro­posed out­comes for which each tier is inten­ded to deliv­er relat­ing to base level, enhanced level, elect­ive and com­ple­ment­ary sup­port pay­ments. CNPA is sup­port­ive of enhanced con­di­tion­al­ity around the key out­comes and would strongly wel­come con­sid­er­a­tion of how Tiers 3 and 4 can be closely aligned with object­ives in the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan as the expres­sion of gov­ern­ment policy and com­munity-led pri­or­it­ies in the area, ensur­ing land man­agers in the Park are giv­en extra sup­port for deliv­er­ing loc­al priorities.

2. Do you agree that a ​‘Whole Farm Plan’ should be used as eli­gib­il­ity cri­ter­ia for the ​‘Base Level Dir­ect pay­ment’ in addi­tion to cross com­pli­ance reg­u­la­tions and green­ing measures?

   Yes. The Park Author­ity wel­comes this approach and recog­nises there are sim­il­ar­it­ies with the pro­pos­al for Land Man­age­ment Plans as per the Land Reform Bill con­sulta­tion. There are oppor­tun­it­ies for read-across with oth­er cur­rent legis­lat­ive draft­ing tak­ing place around land management.

3. Do you agree that the new agri­cul­ture Bill should include mech­an­isms to enable the pay­ments frame­work to be adapt­able and flex­ible over time depend­ing on emer­ging best prac­tice, improve­ments in tech­no­logy and sci­entif­ic evid­ence on cli­mate impacts? Do you agree that the new Agri­cul­ture Bill should include mech­an­isms to enable pay­ments to sup­port the agri­cul­tur­al industry when there are excep­tion­al or unfore­seen cir­cum­stances or a major crises affect­ing agri­cul­tur­al pro­duc­tion or distribution?

   Yes. CNPA sup­ports the devel­op­ment of an adapt­able and flex­ible frame­work to meet chan­ging cir­cum­stances and provide addi­tion­al sup­port in scen­ari­os such as rap­idly escal­at­ing costs. Flex­ib­il­ity might also be con­sidered to sup­port vary­ing degrees of region­al pri­or­it­isa­tions of the four out­comes to meet par­tic­u­lar cir­cum­stances and align­ment with region­al priorities.

4. Do you agree with pro­pos­als that would enable future pay­ments that are con­di­tion­al on, and sup­port deliv­ery of, cli­mate change mit­ig­a­tion and adapt­a­tion object­ives and sup­port integ­rated land man­age­ment such as peat­land and wood­land out­comes on farms and crofts? Do you have any view on spe­cif­ic powers and/​or mech­an­isms that could sup­port such alignment?

   Yes. CNPA is in agree­ment with includ­ing powers and mech­an­isms that allow future pay­ments to sup­port emis­sions reduc­tions in line with nation­al cli­mate object­ives and tar­gets. The cli­mate and nature crisis is the single biggest chal­lenge that we face and it is

5. Do you agree with pro­pos­als that would enable future pay­ments that are con­di­tion­al on, and sup­port deliv­ery of, nature pro­tec­tion and res­tor­a­tion? Do you believe the new Agri­cul­ture Bill should include a mech­an­ism to enable catch­ment scale pay­ments to sup­port nature main­ten­ance and restoration?

   Yes. CNPA wel­comes the recog­ni­tion of the role that land man­agers play in pro­tect­ing and restor­ing biod­iversity, sup­port­ing clean and healthy air, water and soils, con­trib­ute to redu­cing flood risk loc­ally and down­stream and cre­ate thriv­ing, resi­li­ent nature. There is mer­it in align­ing rur­al pay­ments with the deliv­ery of the Scot­tish Biod­iversity Strategy and the stat­utory tar­gets to be defined in the Nat­ur­al Envir­on­ment Bill.

   Catch­ment Man­age­ment Part­ner­ships have proven extremely suc­cess­ful in the Nation­al Park at deliv­er­ing land­scape scale res­tor­a­tion and CNPA strongly endorses sup­port for these and oth­er land­scape scale initiatives.

6. Do you agree the new Agri­cul­ture Bill should include powers and mech­an­isms that allow for giv­ing powers to make changes to rules related to food, con­tin­ue to provide sup­port re food, give powers to sup­port the agri- food sec­tor, and give reserve powers to sup­port the sector?

   Yes. CNPA recog­nises that high qual­ity food pro­duc­tion holds an import­ant place in the cul­ture and eco­nomy of the Nation­al Park and is keen to see sup­port in ways that pro­motes food secur­ity and the role the Nation­al Park can play in achiev­ing Scot­tish Government’s ambi­tion to become a Good Food Nation.

7. Do you agree that the pro­pos­als for Wider Rur­al Devel­op­ment should be included in the new Agri­cul­ture Bill?

   Yes. Pri­or to leav­ing the UK, the LEAD­ER pro­cess and asso­ci­ated fund­ing was a key meth­od and means of sup­port­ing rur­al and island com­munit­ies; enabling those com­munit­ies to take for­ward their own solu­tions to their own often spe­cif­ic issues and pri­or­it­ies for action; and sup­port­ing know­ledge exchange and capa­city build­ing between and with­in those fra­gile com­munit­ies. It is essen­tial as the con­duit of rur­al devel­op­ment that the Agri­cul­ture Bill con­tin­ues to recog­nise these key Com­munity Led Loc­al Devel­op­ment pri­or­it­ies as sig­ni­fic­antly linked to the evol­u­tion of wider agri­cul­ture and rur­al policy in Scot­land and makes pro­vi­sion for action and fund­ing of these areas of activity.

8. Are there oth­er areas relat­ing to non-agri­cul­tur­al land man­age­ment such as forestry that you would like con­sidered for sup­port under the Agri­cul­ture Bill to help deliv­er integ­rated land man­age­ment and the products pro­duced from it?

   Yes. The role in sup­port of micro and small rur­al busi­ness; the link­age of such busi­nesses to their com­munit­ies par­tic­u­larly with­in rur­al and island com­munit­ies; and the poten­tial sup­port for diver­si­fic­a­tion of agri­cul­ture busi­nesses have all been cent­ral and effect­ive fea­tures of pre­vi­ous CLLD approaches and do not appear well covered in this con­sulta­tion doc­u­ment. There is mer­it in a spe­cif­ic focus for sup­port of micro and small busi­ness devel­op­ment with­in rur­al com­munit­ies being included for sup­port with­in the ​“Wider Rur­al Devel­op­ment” ele­ment of the Agri­cul­ture Bill.

   The Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan sets out ambi­tious tar­gets for increas­ing the amount of wood­land in the Nation­al Park to deliv­er biod­iversity bene­fits, cap­ture and store car­bon diox­ide, provide a sus­tain­able source of tim­ber, improve water qual­ity and help reduce the risk of flood­ing. There is a need to ensure an integ­rated approach between wood­land sup­port and wider sup­port for agri­cul­ture. Some of the bar­ri­ers between dif­fer­ent land uses need to be taken down rather than rein­forced through sub­sidy regimes.

   There is a need to con­sider deer man­age­ment as a poten­tial area to fund in the future. At present fund­ing for deer man­age­ment is asso­ci­ated with oth­er activ­it­ies e.g. forestry and there is mer­it in look­ing at it in its own right. The link to oth­er herb­i­vore impacts needs to be con­sidered and a more roun­ded approach to land man­age­ment taken then just look­ing at agriculture.

9. What oth­er powers may be required to enable rur­al devel­op­ment in Scotland’s rur­al and island communities?

   As per above, activ­ity in and fin­an­cial sup­port for micro and small busi­ness start-up and devel­op­ment which sup­ports wider rur­al devel­op­ment pri­or­it­ies is also required as a power to sup­port an effect­ive approach to sup­port­ing thriv­ing rur­al and island communities.

   A key power or enabling mech­an­ism that mer­its spe­cif­ic men­tion is that the sup­port of rur­al devel­op­ment through multi-annu­al rur­al devel­op­ment pro­grammes as char­ac­ter­ised in this doc­u­ment as a stand­ard EU approach remains vital. Effect­ive CLLD and rur­al devel­op­ment typ­ic­ally has a long lead time from devel­op­ment of ideas and solu­tions; to design of action; secur­ing capa­city and fund­ing pack­ages often from mul­tiple sources. Secur­ity of com­munity motiv­a­tion and action from avail­ab­il­ity of sup­port over mul­tiple fin­an­cial years is essen­tial to sup­port this activity.

10. What poten­tial social, eco­nom­ic or oth­er impacts, either pos­it­ive or neg­at­ive, would such powers have on Scotland’s rur­al and island communities?

    The approach out­lined in this con­sulta­tion, and we believe aug­men­ted by our fur­ther require­ments set out in this response, are essen­tial to provid­ing a core sup­port for thriv­ing rur­al and island com­munit­ies across Scot­land. A strong, well-fun­ded, multi-annu­al rur­al devel­op­ment pro­gramme is essen­tial as the devel­op­ment­al safety net for rur­al com­munit­ies that LEAD­ER was first estab­lished to provide and is still required today if we are to ensure the unique cir­cum­stances of rur­al and island com­munit­ies are not ignored by nation­al pro­grammes how­ever well mean­ing and thought out. The deliv­ery of a rur­al devel­op­ment pro­gramme will ensure the Scot­tish Government’s Nation­al Out­come for Com­munit­ies: that we live in com­munit­ies that are inclus­ive, empowered, resi­li­ent and safe can be achieved through­out Scot­land, includ­ing our vari­ous remote rur­al and island com­munit­ies. The

11. Do you agree that sup­port should con­tin­ue to be provided in the area of Skills, Know­ledge Trans­fer and Innovation?

    Yes. Nation­al Parks are highly regarded as places of innov­a­tion and lead­er­ship, where the future of a chan­ging rur­al eco­nomy can be sup­por­ted and show­cased. It is import­ant that future trans­ition­al sup­port is influ­enced by and there­fore suit­able for spe­cif­ic, loc­al needs.

12. Do you agree that Scot­tish Min­is­ters should have a power to be able to determ­ine what is an accept­able diver­si­fic­a­tion? Do you agree that Scot­tish Min­is­ters should be able to amend the rules of good hus­bandry and estate management?

    Yes. Much of the agri­cul­tur­al land in the Nation­al Park is ten­an­ted. To enable change and sup­port ten­ant farm­ers in deliv­er­ing nature, cli­mate, food pro­duc­tion and socio-eco­nom­ic out­comes it is import­ant that clauses regard­ing diver­si­fic­a­tion, good hus­bandry and estate man­age­ment are fit for purpose.