The Scottish government expects that the Rural Development Programme budget for 2019-20 will be 9.2% less than 2010-2011. A revised budget for the 2014-2020 period of the RDP has been submitted to the European Commission for approval.

“We have taken a range of circumstances into account in determining whether to make any modifications to the Scottish Rural Development Programme between now and 2020,” said Cabinet Secretary for the Rural Economy Fergus Ewing, in response to a recent parliamentary question.

“These include the expectation that Scotland’s overall discretionary budget is expected to be 9.2% lower in real terms in 2019-2020 compared to 2010-2011 and the failure of the UK Government to transfer £160m convergence funding, which rightly belongs to Scottish farmers.”

The spend to date in some schemes has been lower than expected, which has also been included in the adjustment.

Revised budget

The revised indicative budgets, for SRDP period 2014-2020 are:

  • Less Favoured Area Support Scheme – £419m.
  • Agri-Environment Climate Scheme – £308m.
  • Forestry Grant Scheme – £266.8m.
  • Beef Efficiency Scheme – £25.4m.
  • New Entrants – £22m.
  • Crofters Agricultural Grant Scheme – £12m.
  • Small Farmers Grant Scheme – £2m.
  • Food Processing, Marketing and Cooperation Grant Scheme – £66m.
  • Environmental Co-operation Action Fund – £4m.
  • Advisory Services – £19.5m.
  • Knowledge Transfer and Innovation Fund – £6m.
  • LEADER – £82m.
  • Broadband – £9m.
  • “Despite our best efforts, we still do not have certainty about the future of the SRDP, beyond a commitment from the UK Government to maintain Pillar 1 payments to farmers until 2022,” Ewing said.

    He added that the government does not intend to modify budgets for direct supports, but will increase SRDP funding to support young entrants and maintain planned support for forestry grants to meet the 10,000ha tree-planting target.