The arrival of the devolved Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in the UK has been marked by political sniping from both the Westminster and Scottish Governments but farmers have been assured civil servants north and south of the border were cooperating in ensuring a smooth transition in Scotland to area-based support payments.
Speaking in Perth, Ian Davidson, from the Agricultural Payments Division of the Scottish Government, described his counterparts in Defra as “our best allies” in preparing for the new scheme.
England moved to an area-based support system at the last reform of the CAP, a move that was marked by a fair amount of chaos, confusion and consequential lengthy delays in getting support payments out to farmers with some waiting months after the expected date.
Davidson told delegates attending a Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors’ (RICS) conference that a meeting with Defra officials last week had gone over where their computer system had failed to cope with the changeover.
“We had a very constructive and helpful meeting where they identified where they had had problems,” he said.
“We have taken on board the lessons they learned.”
When asked specifically if the Scottish computer was geared up to cope, he was very positive that it was.
However, he did admit that all the detailed policy decisions had not yet been made and every move that brought more complexity was fraught with danger as far as he was concerned.
“It (the CAP) is complicated, can we resist making it more so?”
One of the big problems highlighted by Defra at the joint meeting was dealing with disputes over land designation.
While Davidson admitted the final decision on how many land categories Scotland went for would be a political one, he indicated that problems would develop exponentially with additional categories.
The current proposal is to split Scotland into two regions the first covers arable cropping, temporary and permanent grass while the second covers all rough grazing areas.
“The more regions there are, the more challenges will arise from farmers and landowners,” Mr Davidson said.
With many detailed proposals within the CAP due to be firmed up by the end of next month he was confident the civil service back-up to the transition would be in place to cope with the change which is due to come into play in January next year.
John Hollis, chairman of the RICS rural professional group, admitted the surveyors would be under “a little bit of pressure” to understand all of the changes in such a relatively short time but he was sure they would rise to the challenge.