Farmers must continue to receive Government support to remain viable food producers, SNP MEP Alyn Smith has said. However, he acknowledges that this will be a challenge if it is left to Westminster to decide.

“The future of farming will be challenging, but I’m optimistic that long-term agriculture in Scotland is viable,” he told Farmers Journal Scotland in Brussels this week. “A proper farm support system featuring direct payments to farmers will be an important element of this.”

Smith is the only Scottish MEP that is a member of the Agriculture Committee in the European Parliament, and was a rapporteur on the pillar II (environmental element) of the last CAP reform. He acknowledges the difficulty with payments to farmers and blames the complexity of the present CAP for overloading the computer system.

“Scotland wasn’t alone in having difficulties with getting the payments out on time,” said Smith, who was a forceful advocate for Scotland leaving the UK, but being part of the EU. “CAP is the best support mechanism to deliver productive agriculture and food security. While it may be perfectly acceptable to import gaming consoles from far flung corners of the earth, food is a much more important issue.”

Smith does not accept Brexit as a done deal and remains committed to having direct payments to farmers. Being pro EU he also expressed hope that the UK would reflect on its decision to leave and find a mechanism to remain.