Rural Affair Secretary, Richard Lochhead, has announced the start, on the 1st December 2010, of a new system for paying the EU Single Farm Payment (SFP) subsidy to qualifying farmers.
This will see 81%% of Scotland’s farmers (15,700) getting the subsidy at once; and a total of 90% with their money in the bank (a total of around £500 million) by the end of January 2011
Every silver lining has a cloud, of course. The obverse here is that some farmers judged to have been claiming the subsidy on ineligible land – following a surprise check by EU auditors, are being required to pay back subsidies from 2006 onwards – and face financial penalties.
This administration of this subsidy is under review with its controversial payments given to farmers rather than being assigned to the farm upon which the subsidy is based.
This means that someone leaving farming is legally entitled to take the SFP with them, making farming for new entrants to the industry a very much tougher start.
These are valuable subsidies, awarded for a medium term.
The current LibDem MEP, George Lyon, controversially chose to retain the SFPs paid to him for his three farms on the Isle of Bute, when he .relinquished their leases to the Mount Stuart Estate and took off on to immerse himself in the greatest of all political gravy trains in Brussells.
He is not alone in seeing this as a right – which in law it is.
Mr Lochhead and his spin doctors certainly know how to spin a story …………… farmers and crofters in Argyll & Bute know the reality is very different from the picture portrayed . Many of them are living in fear of the heavy handed tactics of Mr Lochhead’s officials , the worst in the EU , and are unlikely to see any payments made for some time due to petty matters eg an animal with one of two cattle ear tags lost .
Mr Lochhead has nothing but spin to show for his term , agriculture in Argyll & Bute has been going down the plughole during his watch ……..
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