Agriculture / Funded support to be offered to crofters claiming rural support
THE SHETLAND Livestock Marketing Group has secured funding support for Shetland’s smallest producers as they prepare for the new Whole Farm Plan (WFP) requirements this year.
More than £30,000 of funding is coming from Shetland’s Community Led Local Development Programme Fund (CLLD).
The project, run in partnership with SAC Consulting Lerwick, will see a series of five drop-in sessions held across Shetland to support crofters in accessing clear information and support to be able to continue claiming rural and agricultural support payments in 2025/26.
The drop-in sessions will be held in Uyeasound Hall (17 February 11am-2pm), Mid Yell Hall (17 February, 4.30pm-7.30pm), Bigton Hall (24 February 4pm-7pm), Brae Community Hall (date TBC), Bixter Hall (date TBC).
Alongside this, more than 100 crofters who currently claim low levels of rural support – £1,000 or less annually in basic payments – will be able to access fully funded SAC subscriptions for 2025.
Under government policy future agricultural support will be dependent on new compliance measures for all rural agricultural businesses regardless of their size.
From 2025, the government’s new WFP will gradually be phased in for all businesses who submit a single application form.
While crofters and farmers in Shetland will still be eligible for the same schemes as they were last year, for 2025 they will have to undertake at least two baseline plans or audits before they submit their IACS claim this spring.
Shetland Livestock Marketing Group chairperson Cecil Eunson said: “It is not difficult to see how challenging this will be, especially for many of the older generation of crofters who are often those preserving some of our most traditional agricultural practices with an extremely high nature value.
“They are often the people who will suffer most from the digital skills gap as well, and they will definitely struggle with these new requirements.
“The government is saying that folk can complete many of the new plans and audits themselves, but many simply won’t be able to. And we are hearing from many SLMG members who are either thinking of giving up or just not claiming anymore.”
Figures show that in 2023 £10.7 million came into Shetland through agricultural support.
It is said that the “vast majority of which will have stayed within our most rural economies, with agriculture having the greatest economic multiplier effect of any local industry”.
The funding will be used to provide funded support and guidance to crofters drawing down £1,000 or less in basic payment who are otherwise most at risk of dropping out of the support system all together as they face disproportionately higher compliance costs and a greater administrative burden to meet the new requirements.
Local agricultural organisations as well as an SRUC report published last year have all highlighted the risks and potentially devastating knock-on effects of small producers disengaging with the agricultural support system.
In 2023, at the same time as it was introducing these changes, the Scottish Government also chose to break its long-standing commitment to support crofts and small farms with subsidised access to advisory support through the farm advisory service croft and small farm subscription to SAC Consulting’s services.
Osla Jamwal Fraser from SAC Consulting Lerwick said: “It’s an incredibly challenging time for the industry in general but especially for island agriculture where everything is that bit harder and that bit more expensive.
“We are delighted to be able to deliver this project with SLMG. I would really encourage any crofter who claims less than £1,000 in BPS to get in touch with us or come along to one of the drop-in sessions and we will make sure you get the support you need to be able to meet the requirements for 2025.
“I think it’s really important to remember how diverse our crofting community is.
“Even locally there is a tendency to think of crofters as a homogenous group of folk, forgetting that many of our crofters are also perhaps low income pensioners, folk struggling with fuel poverty and the cost of living crisis as well as all the industry challenges we are seeing at the moment.
“We hear a lot of talk about addressing rural poverty and the government’s commitment to a Just Transition to Net Zero for all, but there are currently a lot of people getting left behind.”
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