The consultation Stability & Simplicity has closed – and with 46 meaty questions it was not for the faint-hearted. But the agricultural sector has a lot riding on these soundings of the farming community so hopefully a lot of meat has been added to the bones in the responses.

Having now been involved in the Brexit consultation process with the Agri Champs, we know it must feel there have been endless discussions, roadshows and reports issued and well there has. But jaded we cannot be, Defra has just published its Agricultural Bill for England and Wales so now it is time to draw conclusions from the deliberations and gain consensus on which path Scotland wants to take.

The Stability and Simplicity paper was searching for inspiration on what the new CAP funding should look like and what appetite there is for innovation in process and a workable solution on how farmers should be audited going forward.

Similar to our paper and the UK Agricultural Bill, the environmental and sustainable agri agenda is being pushed further up the roll call and there is a clear indication that they want to clear out the clutter and administrative burden.

Both Scottish papers, and many others conclude that the Scottish Government should have more of a comprehensive rural take on our agricultural policy, there should be a refocus on performance and profitability and there are few thorny questions around whether we should follow the road of performance led capping or capping per se.

The major difference from the Stability Paper and Agri Champions paper was that we are trying to inspire farmers, policymakers and rural businesses to look to the horizon with clear ambitions for the sector.

Defra has now thrown their hat firmly into this ring with their vision for rewarding farmers for environmental benefits, welfare and expanding for efficiencies. The success of any major policy restructuring is usually closely aligned with how well the Government is working with the levers of government to facilitate, ensuring the sector concerned is on board, as well the businesses and the academic sector affected.

With all the papers written, articles published and village hall forums hosted, a paper mountain or two, maybe the stars are aligning for Scottish agriculture on this front, we now just need the plan to crystalise them for the long term.

Inspiring young people to enter farming

From our educational work, it has also become abundantly clear to us that we must convince more young people to get involved in our industry. There’s a huge amount for the industry and individuals to do more to convince teenagers at schools and primary schools of the opportunities that exist within our sector and for government to support in how this is achieved.

In assessing the challenges faced by producers it is also clear that supply chains work best where cooperation between farmers and collaboration between all the elements in supply chains work together. In adopting this tack, we believe that the next generation, with their more professional outlook and greater social connectivity, could lead the way.

Policy and administrative change need to have strong leadership (holding a few feet to the fire from time to time and working to keep to Defra on board with the rationale for Scotland), an action plan (maybe a few less short term targets), good ongoing evaluation of what is working and what is not, but most importantly strong communication with those affected from the start, and all along the journey.

On our journey in the past 12 months the one thing we have had our knuckles wrapped for is ‘don’t keep telling farmers to change their mindset’ we have some of the most driven an innovative minds doing their bit and perhaps the younger generation are already there. We quote from the FJ Young Farmer series where Alistair Brunton nailed the dilemma “I feel there is a lack of young people willing to get stuck in”, well let’s hope in the myriad of reports and well-intentioned consultation we can reverse that trend and fulfill this young farmer’s outlook whether with national or local policies “Overall, the future is bright for agriculture but we will have to change going forward” (Alistair).

It will be interesting to see who has offered ideas, innovation and inspiration given the politicians still have time to come together and find the right combination of policies for Scotland as we do need all their stars to align for the best solution to emerge for Scotland’s long term interests.