Scotland’s farmers are in a unique position to produce high-quality food for our tables, provide important rural jobs and tackle the climate and nature crises, but they need the right support to do it
By Dr Mike Robinson, chair of Stop Climate Chaos Scotland
(This article was first published in Bella Caledonia)
People have been growing crops and raising beasts in Scotland since neolithic times, when the earliest settlements began springing up across the country.
Now, after 6,000 years of toil and innovation, we’re pretty good at it. Scotland’s agricultural sector brings in around £2.2 billion to the economy each year, puts food on our plates and supports important rural livelihoods.
But we also now recognise the effects this is having on emissions and on nature, so we need to continue to adapt and innovate if we are going to continue to be successful. We have the knowledge and the research to do this in Scotland. We just need the political will to take action, and that starts with recognising the problem.
Agriculture has a massive impact on the environment. Many farmers can and do support nature-restoration across Scotland, but this isn’t universal. The sector is responsible for a major share of Scotland’s planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions – almost a fifth of the total, coming in third place after domestic transport and buildings.
Failure to tackle these emissions will make Scotland’s aim to reach net zero by 2045 very difficult to achieve. And climate change itself will make farming increasingly challenging as our seasons shift, extremes become more common and the nature of our land changes through drought and flood damage.
But progress in decarbonising the sector has been glacially slow, with an ongoing failure to deliver the emissions cuts needed to help end Scotland’s role in driving global heat rise. Overall, the country’s agricultural emissions have fallen by just 13% since 1990 – a small drop in comparison with the level of reduction from energy generation over the same period. More worryingly, in the last 15 years they have barely reduced at all.
This lack of momentum over several years has sparked a recent walkout from a government advisory group. At the end of last year representatives from climate and nature groups, including SCCS, quit the Scottish Government’s Agriculture Reform Implementation Oversight Board, citing frustration at “government back-pedalling”, “laboured and opaque” decision-making, “largely imperceptible” progress and the feeling of “going round in circles”.
Scotland’s new Climate Change Plan presents an ideal opportunity to change the direction of travel, while also improving the environment and safeguarding important rural jobs and food supplies. With the right levers in place, rural land should be a critical part of the solution – reducing emissions and helping boost nature in the process.
However, climate action and energy secretary Gillian Martin has already thrown an extra spanner into the works by announcing that Scotland will chart its own path on some emissions-reduction recommendations set out by government climate advisers, including ruling out policy interventions to support the longstanding trend away from dependence on livestock farming.
Our members are calling for greater support for eco-friendly agricultural practices, including financial help and training. But even simple measures like reducing nitrogen application on fields or planting trees on livestock farms can make a huge difference.
Currently only 10% of the £647 million annual public funding for the industry goes to methods that explicitly boost nature and protect the climate. Our coalition wants to see the next Scottish Government up this to 75% before the end of the next parliamentary term.
We need to help our farmers and land managers adapt if we are going to deliver against the ambition we know we all need. This means farm payments that reward farmers for delivering for climate and nature, and a properly-funded system of sharing knowledge and innovation to help farmers do that.
Surveys show there is strong public backing for changing how agriculture is supported in Scotland, with three quarters of people saying farmers and crofters should be paid to protect nature and reduce emissions, not just to produce food.
And those working the land know only too well how climate change is already affecting what they do. In the last year – the hottest in history for Scotland and the UK – an extended drought brought water shortages and some of the worst harvests ever known.
Livestock farmer Matt Griffin farms 2,500 acres at Neidpath, Peebles, in the Scottish Borders. He farms sheep and beef and says his is a “typical upland farm”.
But Griffin, like all farmers, is now dealing with whiplash weather – prolonged dry periods, followed by heavy rainfall and flood – on an increasingly regular basis.
He is on the steering group of the Nature Friendly Farming Network and advocates methods that protect the soil, as well as his business.
Crucially, he is also already deploying agroecology techniques on his own farm to help lessen the impacts. But Griffin says growers and producers across Scotland need more backing to help make the shift.
“If we can echo what’s happening in nature, it can go some way to help,” Griffin said.
“It’s easy to talk about the environmental benefits of farming with nature, but if you can get farmers to understand the financial benefits and the social benefits – because you’re mitigating flooding – then it’s a triple win.”
You reap what you sow, as the old proverb goes. Where is the credibility in declaring a climate emergency and then not enacting meaningful action to tackle it in one of the most polluting sectors
It’s time to plant the seeds of hope and change.Scotland’s draft Climate Change Plan is out for public consultation until 29 January. Now is the time for Scots to have their say on how Scotland’s climate ambitions should be realised. See the SCCS website for a handy guide on how to make your voice heard.
