The four agricultural champions, appointed by Fergus Ewing in January this year, have set out six strategic themes for the report that they will publish on the future of Scottish agriculture next spring. Presenting their interim discussion document in Battleby last Friday, the champions said that given the long-term nature of farming the report must get cross-party support in order for it to be led by Government with partnership from the industry.

“The agricultural sector faces major change and we have to prepare the mindset for that,” said Henry Graham, champion of education and training. “This report goes beyond Government, beyond the term of the current parliament and must receive cross-party support.”

Concern was expressed at the conference about whether the suggested April/May publication date would allow time to feed into DEFRA’s paper on the future of agricultural policy post Brexit. However, a spokesperson for the Scottish Government said that DEFRA’s document will outline the structural details of the UK’s post-Brexit agricultural framework, but that the champions’ document will be well placed to engage in the detail of that framework.

“There’s no methodology behind getting consumers to understand what we do as farmers. I’d like to see a way of how we communicate with the end user,” said NFUS president Andrew McCornick. “There are a lot of parallels between our Change document and what the agricultural champions are working on. We will be finished consulting our members on that by the end of this month, so we will be able to feed in and move forward. At the end of the day we all have the same goal.”

The champions have identified that the concept of public value underpins the six strategic themes set out in the report.

“Farming is also a long-term business, which needs a long-term strategy that is owned and promoted by industry and Government in partnership,” said Rural Economy Secretary Fergus Ewing. “I believe this interim report from the champions is a good initial step towards that aim.”