The UK government’s commitment to farm funding until 2022 was hotly debated between Defra secretary Michael Gove and Rural Economy Minister Fergus Ewing.

The two ministers locked horns as they debated the future of farming in front a packed room in Edinburgh.

While commitment has been made by Westminster for all farm funding until 2022, Holyrood is questioning the definition of farm funding and looking to know if Leader, agri environment schemes and forestry are part of the promise.

“Reckless and feckless”, was how the Scottish minister described Westminster’s approach to Brexit.

While Gove pressed the Scottish Government to back Theresa May’s deal and end the current uncertainty.

In his opened address, Ewing rounded on the Conservative Government damning their plans for trade, tarrifs, farm support budgets and freedom of movement.

He highlighted that 52% of staff in abattoirs are from the EU and Brexit threatens to grind abattoirs to a halt.

The UK government’s proposal to allow 2,500 workers was described as “woefully inadequate” by Ewing.

Michael Gove did concede that the £30,000 earning minimum for migrant labour needed to be carefully looked at, which could be a softening of the government position. Ewing stressed that the “ludicrous” rule would see the majority of migrants in the food sector fail to hit the earning threshold – preventing them from getting to the UK.

Funding assurance

Michael Gove stressed that all pillar I and II funding would be supported until 2022.

However, Ewing questioned whether this funding included non-farming activities which is worth around £120m/year.

Future funding is in the hands of the Bew report and Ewing wants the historic convergence money to be included in the formula for dividing UK farm support.

Gove did concede that “we look back at the past and learn lessons. Then we see Scotland is funded fairly”.

Former NFU president Jim Walker, who is Scotland’s representative on the review, asked if they will have full access to government ministerial advice from 2023, to which Gove said he would like to see this happen.

Gove did state that future funding would not be divided due to the Barnett formula, which would see 9% compared with the current 16% heading to Scotland.

Gove promised to target funding more effectively to smaller farmers to improve productivity.

He painted a positive picture for the future of farming, as he believed that precision farming, data analytics and the conventional gene editing technology will all help to boost productivity in the future.

Direct payments

Meanwhile, Ewing reiterated the need for significant financial support for direct payments and farmers producing food at the heart of future policy.

He committed to redress the downward trend of sheep and cow numbers.

NFU president Andrew McCornick challenged Gove to ensure that Scottish farmers didn’t fall behind Europe on levels of support.

The Defra Secretary said UK farmers would not be left behind compared with those in the EU.

However, the Scottish minister reminded the room Gove is yet to give this commitment on the Hansard record in Parliament.