Measuring the impacts of Scotland's agricultural support – a national level monitoring framework

Data gaps and future indicator development

The work to identify suitable indicators for a baseline highlighted the data gaps that exist for the outcomes framework. This chapter details where existing or developing instruments could contribute to further indicators for 2030 reporting. ^[[v]] These are arranged under relevant sub-outcomes.

Value produced

Indicator: Maximum sustainable output

Data source: Nature Friendly Farming Network

Description: Maximum Sustainable Output is where a farm business manages their inputs and outputs to get maximum returns both for nature & business. It can help measure farm viability, and gives an indication towards the business’s ability to support the local economy. A metric for Maximum Sustainable Output for Scotland’s farms has not yet been defined.

Indicator status: Not specified

Timeline: Not specified

Diversity of output

Indicator: Nutrient production

Data source: Scottish Government and Rowett Institute’s Calorie and Nutrient Estimates from Scottish Agricultural Production

Description: There is ongoing work to develop annual estimates of calorie and nutrient production from Scottish agriculture for 2025. The current analytical project aims to establish a robust and reproducible methodology combining agricultural census, production and nutritional composition data to estimate the contribution of Scottish agriculture to the supply of key nutrients for human consumption.

Indicator status: In progress

Timeline: Not specified

Climate adaptation

As highlighted above, climate adaptation is a more difficult outcome to measure impact. Baseline indicators for climate adaptation currently centre around irrigation methods and drought prevention methods. However, earth observation technologies could bolster measurement of adaptation on farms. These, and other existing projects, are detailed below.

Indicators: Run-off risk; erosion risk

Data source: Scottish Government LiDAR Agriculture and Environment features project

Description: Run-off risk indicators may be developed in the future, making use of the Scottish Government’s ongoing Scottish Land LiDAR Programme. The Agriculture and Environment features project focuses on geomorphology on agricultural land. As such, it has the potential to identify features such as likely areas of higher erosion risk and run-off risk. Run-off occurs when rainfall does not infiltrate the soil or enter drainage systems – managing run-off helps lower flood risk and prevent soil erosion.

Indicator status: In progress

Timeline: To be completed in 2027

Indicator: Tree and vegetation cover

Data source: Scottish Government LiDAR Forestry/Vegetation project

Description: The LiDAR Forestry/Vegetation project is investigating potential indicators for tree and vegetation cover on agricultural land. The project involves mapping of forest and vegetation structure, hedgerows, forestry and trees outside of woodlands and estimating carbon stocks in biomass.

Indicator status: In progress

Timeline: To be completed in 2027

Indicator: Wild fire damage on agricultural land

Data source: NatureScot Wildfire and Muirburn Extents dataset

Description: NatureScot reports on wildfires and muirburn locations in Scotland annually, starting in 2018. Owing to limitations in satellite imagery availability (cloud) and staff resources this will not be a complete dataset of burns in Scotland. It is currently not mapped to claimed agricultural land, but this is a possibility in the future with the help of the Scottish LiDAR project.

Indicator status: Not started

Timeline: Not specified

Environmental impact of food production

Indicator: Pesticide Load Indicator (PLI)

Data source: Defra

Description: The UK PLI is designed to measure the environmental pressure associated with pesticide use, rather than simply the quantity of pesticides applied. By combining pesticide usage and hazard data, the indicator provides a more nuanced assessment of the potential environmental impacts arising from changes in pesticide use over time. At present, the indicator is not available at a Scottish level. However, work is underway between Defra and the Scottish Government to explore the development of Scottish-level data.

Indicator status: In progress

Timeline: Not specified

Farmland as nature rich

There are currently few indicators that provide farm-level or sector-level data on biodiversity and nature richness on farms. However, work is in progress for identifying and measuring some aspects of biodiversity across agricultural systems that could be used in 2030.

Indicator: RED List of Ecosystems

Data source: NatureScot

Description: The Red List of Ecosystems (RLE) is a globally recognized standard for assessing ecosystem risk, designed to identify symptoms of degradation and evaluate the likelihood of ecosystem collapse. It serves as a headline indicator for biodiversity and uses a comprehensive global ecosystem typology. The RLE uses an evidence-based methodology with five criteria: current extent, historical decline, abiotic and biotic pressures, and changes since 1750 or within any 50-year period. In Scotland, around 60 natural and semi-natural ecosystems have been identified within the ecosystem typology, one of which is agriculture.

Indicator status: In progress

Timeline: To be completed by end of 2027

Indicator: Status of pollinating insects

Data source: Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC)

Description: This indicator reports changes in the distribution of some key pollinator groups (bees and hoverflies) in the UK. The indicator is based on 393 species (158 species of bee and 235 species of hoverfly), and measures change in the number of 1 kilometre grid squares across the UK in which they were recorded in any given year: this is referred to as the ‘occupancy index’. Many insect species are involved in pollination, but bees and hoverflies are known to be important and are presented here as an indicator of overall pollinator trend. Scottish Government are working with the JNCC and NatureScot to make Scottish-level data available.

Indicator status: In progress

Timeline: To be completed in 2027