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The new Scottish agriculture bill will have far reaching effects on national subsidy mechanisms across 70% of the landscape. A National Park could help the agricultural transition of farms and crofts to low carbon nature friendly farming.
National Park Authorities aim to reconcile farming and sporting estate objectives with other local and national interests so that these special qualities are safeguarded for future generations. Several examples of how this works in practice are given in SCNPs Support for Farming in National Parks report.
National Park Authorities generally aspire to ensure high-quality location and design of development, including farm buildings. They seek to achieve this both by issuing general guidance and by working closely with anyone planning a development.
National Park staff also play an active role in ensuring that any recreation undertaken by visitors is achieved in ways that are compatible with land managing interests. They invest in physical facilities such as paths, bike routes and car parks and in countryside rangers and other staff on the ground, a particularly valuable service when so many local authorities are cutting back on such work.
As for any other local residents, farmers and other land managers can stand for election to the National Park Authority and thereby seek to influence its policies and approach; this has regularly happened elsewhere.
Interesting work currently being delivered in the Cairngorms with agricultural translation at the heart of the work. Farms are being supported to deliver mob grazing for species diversity and improved farm efficiency. An additional 6 farms are being offered full farm ecological plans with carbon audits and integrated land management plans.
ReplyDeleteMore work is taking place to manage greylag geese by the Park authority to reduce pressure on grassland for farms along the Dulnain and Spey catchments.
Nice comment Lewis Pate on your own page as well. You have no idea of Crofting or farming and what it means but yet your sat here commenting as if you do.
DeleteJust for the record no Crofter’s or farmers were told of this scheme or knew anything about the scheme with the exception of the 6 crofts and farms specially chosen and all done behind closed doors. Where is the transparency. But then you know all about that.
Lewis Pate nothing to be proud of at all - farmers and crofters in the Cairngorms were not consulted on this and the six farms and crofts chosen in secret behind closed doors - most farmers and corfters in the park still have no idea what the scheme involves and we understand it is costing £600,000.00 ? Hardly a fair distribution of funding ? If you had not been so busy with this new national park yoiu might of asked farmers and crofters what they wanted the money spent on as your job of Agri Officer with the CNPA ??
DeleteWow! Carbon Audits and ILM plans are already grant aided through FAS, it's hardly exciting stuff is it? Will farms in a Lochaber NP be offered anything substantially different than what currently exists through rural payments or FAS? You should be pushing for a whole new capital grant funding for tenant farmers to match the Crofting CAGS grant within the NP or something like that, audits and plans that are already grant aided is pathetic.
ReplyDeleteI managed the development phase of the Cairngorms National Park Future Farming project so have some knowledge of this process. I am aware of the FAS offers on carbon auditing and ILMP's and they are decent offers - add in the soil testing and nutrient management planning and you have something worth accessing, however we felt that these offers could be substantially improved on.
ReplyDeleteWe did this by looking in far greater detail at the potential for capital interventions to integrate higher levels of biological diversity with food production. In addition we looked at what specifics would improve business resilience as the standard ILMP lacks some detail on this. For example on one farm we supported the capital cost of NoFence collars for cattle to improve sward diversity and animal health by encouraging rotational grazing and stepping away from set stocking.
All farms within English NP's and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty have access to the Farming in Protected Landscapes (FiPL) budget from DEFRA. This is a capital-weighted resource that is farmer-led and offers significant and meaningful financial support. I am doing my best to initiate a capital fund for farmers at CNPA where we recognise that CAGS is not accessible for farms outside of crofting tenure and this is a constant source of frustration for those wishing to deliver capital improvements on their holdings. This is still very much a work in progress, however in the interim we are supporting farms within the NP for capital expenses to deliver nature friendly farming and diversify to provide greater business resilience. I agree with your comments and we need to see far greater clarity and support levered in for agricultural transition around the current Scottish Vision for Agriculture.
Why give farms in national parks for special treatment. Everywhere should have the same level of support.
ReplyDeleteScottish farms and Crofts are some of the most carbon efficient businesses in the country already! Especially when you go into consideration the level out output for the one thing no human can survive without and that’s food! This is no more than the usual buzzwords and flannel. The majority of farms in Scotland will be carbon neutral at worst and in a lot of cases sequester huge amounts of carbon. On our hill farm a recent carbon audit showed that we were sequestering more than double what we emit annually! In my opinion our excisting national parks have had more negative effects on farmers and crofters than positive.
ReplyDeleteI doubt well probably can state with some certainty that in the CNPA (which seems to be the "model" does Loch Lomond Park not exist?) that as a crofter in the 20 years of the CNPA's existence they have no idea of who or how many farmers/crofters/land based businesses there are. Not once in 20 years have we been contacted or received assistance, advice or been aware of any agri schemes/training promoted by a Park Authority. It wasn't until a protest meeting was held that the vast majority of the attendees learnt that A - The CNPA had an agri officer and B that some farms & estates had been receiving grants etc. A shocking state of affairs that in 20 years the people who make up a significant area of the Park have been totally neglected. How much land does a National Park own? - nil but how much land does a Park seek to control, dictate and oversee? ...it ALL!
ReplyDeleteLatest proposal from SNP ON FARMING AND FISHERIES.... GUESS WHO THEY WOULD use to OVERSEE in Lochaber and other N PARK's ... yet more costs placed on fishers and farmers.
ReplyDelete" It adds that from 2025, to qualify for farming support payments farmers will be required to have the foundations of a whole farm plan’ which will include soil testing, animal health and welfare declarations, carbon audits, biodiversity audits and supported business planning. ,,,,,,,,, as well as them being responsible for a range of planned actions to restore peatlands and woodlands"