Pack Report: Key principles and recommendations
The final report of the Pack Inquiry into Future Support for Agriculture in Scotland has been published (3 Nov).
The inquiry was commissioned by rural affairs secretary Richard Lochhead in June 2009 to examine agricultural subsidy and consider how best future support should be tailored to deliver a sustainable sector.
The report is based on the following principles:
• Increasingly hard to justify use of historic model for distributing payments
• Historic system has left very uneven distribution of direct payments
• Future support regime must have agricultural production at its heart
• Greater benefits for society if direct payments are maintained close to current levels but higher demands placed on farmers to deliver public benefits
• Transferring support from Pillar 1 to Pillar 2 would lead to increase in bureaucracy and would not meet government’s goals
• Highest payments should go to the more active farmers on grounds they exist to compensate farmers for the higher costs associated with operating in common market
• Reintroduction of coupled headage payments to stabilise cow and sheep numbers on marginal land
There are 23 specific recommendations. Here’s is Farmers Weekly’s at-a-glance guide to the main points:
• Divide farmers into those in Less Favoured Areas (LFA) and those in a non-LFA
• Farmers in LFA (85% of Scotland) would be eligible for an area-based payment (€30/ha), top-up payments (€6400 per Standard Labour Requirement) and headage payments (see below)
• Headage payment suggested for LFA farms only and would include introduction of a lamb headage scheme offering flat rate payment of €8/head
• Revamp of current Scottish Beef Calf Scheme recommended to include calves with 50% beef genetics (€135/head) and offer higher rates for smaller herds with 75% beef genetics (payments could range from €135-220/head)
• Farmers in non-LFA would be eligible for area based payment (€200/ha) and a top up payment (€100/ha) only
• Area based payment should be a low per hectare rate to minimise disruption to the land market. Farmers would also have to comply with minimum stocking rate
• Top Up funding designed to encourage transformational change to develop a more sustainable agricultural industry
• National reserve would need to be established to offer support to new entrants