AgriScot: Ministerial speech

Thank you very much to the team for the invitation to come back here to AgriScot. I’m delighted to be here.

I want to generally start by congratulating Gilmour, I know he’s very nervous but he’s doing a fantastic job. This is a fantastic event and he’s at the helm of it, he’s running it very well, so well done to Gilmour for taking this on and making such a good job of it.

I also want to thank Andrew for his role in NFUS as the President for his thoughts and raising the key issues that the industry has for us.

I know that we will all agree this is probably one of the highlights of the agricultural calendar – it’s a great place to do business, to learn about the latest industry developments and the equal importance of those developments, and a chance to get the off-farm and meet up with friends and colleagues.

This event represents a great opportunity for me to engage with you, but most importantly, I want to listen, I want to better understand the issues that you face, that your business faces and your families are facing.

Last year Scotland’s First Minister John Swinney spoke at this event, and he came to AgriScot to send a very clear message to rural Scotland and the agricultural sector and that is that the Scottish Government absolutely gets how important agriculture is, it’s the bedrock of the rural community and it’s a cornerstone of our Scottish economy.

That’s why in these difficult times, we are determined to do all we can, with the powers that we have, to protect and work with this industry.

You’ve a central role to play in growing our economy, tackling the climate and nature crisis and producing food sustainably – underpinning our food security and our £19 billion food and drink sector with exports worth over £7 billion. You should be, and I am very proud, of this amazing industry which has been built  over decades and generations, and is an industry which has so much more potential to come.

I want to take a moment to acknowledge and speak directly about the challenges many of you are facing right now on a daily basis. We live in a time of change and uncertainty and that can be completely unsettling, and I understand that. Farming is tough at the best of times before having to contend with the issues that many of you are having to deal with today.

There’s many producers that are worrying about cuts in the price of milk, poor returns for malting barley or inflation in input costs and that’s before we consider the impacts of more extreme weather or geopolitical instability. That volatility underlines to me, the importance of continuing to provide direct support to the sector.

I’m not going to stand here and pretend that we’ve got all of the answers – because we don’t. But, we do need to work together as Team Scotland to find solutions and seek out those new opportunities, and I’m determined that we’ll do that.

I believe we are doing all we can in these times of uncertainty to provide that stability right now. The policy choices we have made in Scotland are in stark contrast to support policies in other parts of these islands.

In England for example BPS payments are now capped at £7,200 per business, they have no LFA or coupled support for livestock producers. We have retained BPS, indeed we have retained all of the key schemes which provide support to your businesses.

I hope that demonstrates in a small way that this government is committed to sustaining investment in agriculture – both now and in the future. 

One of the key ways we can further support farmers is through targeted investments which support the wider supply chain from investments in food processing to supporting export initiatives.

A good example of this is our continued support for the Dairy Growth Board, it’s doing some important work and making positive inroads to meeting the ambitions of the Rising to the Top 2030 Dairy Strategy, including 140 per cent post-Covid growth achieved in cheese exports that’s a good news story.  

Since its launch in 2023, we have committed £15 million to support the delivery of Scotland’s food and drink strategy “Sustaining Scotland, Supplying the World” – that’s a 10-year plan led by Scotland Food & Drink to safeguard and grow the food and drink industry. We are providing over £700,000 in 2025/26 towards the Scotland Food & Drink Export Plan.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring our producers are fairly treated within the supply chain, including the current challenging dairy environment.

Whilst our view has always been that these are devolved issues, we have worked hard to represent the Scottish interest on the Fair Dealing (Milk) Obligations 2024, meaning that we expect all dairy processors to treat suppliers fairly and in line with the requirements of the Obligations.

Where farmers believe those obligations are not being met, we would encourage them to first raise the issue directly with their processor through the dispute resolution process and, if the matter can’t be resolved, to contact the Agricultural Supply Chain Adjudicator for further support.

Clearly these provisions and that of the wider agricultural supply chain adjudicator will need to be kept under review to ensure they deliver effective and robust protections for our farmers.

Our vision and policy is about action on climate and nature being integrated into productive farm businesses. That’s not a choice between climate action and food production, it’s about both, we stated very clearly both at the Royal Highland Show and more recently with the climate change plan statement.

There is no policy to reduce livestock numbers and there will not be a policy to reduce numbers. We have a world-renowned livestock industry here in Scotland – one we should all be immensely proud of.  One that I’m definitely immensely proud of.

We can meet our emissions targets through a range of measures from improving productivity to integrating woodlands on farms.

We will meet our climate obligations by working with rural Scotland in partnership, and making sre a prosperous future for our food and drink industries, of which agriculture is a absolutely vital part.

The stark reality of climate change is that now more than ever we need our farmers, we need to support you to reduce emissions and we need to support you to deliver sustainable food production.

I want to take a moment just to reassure you about our approach to the development of future agricultural policy. Yes, the policy is being transformed, there will be changes in the years ahead, but these will be designed with the industry. They will deliver steady progress whilst ensuring stability and certainty for the sector.

I want to be clear – these reforms will be an ongoing process – there is no big bang moment, there will be no cliff edges.  It’s that steady supply of making sure that we change the sector which gives you the certainty.

The reforms to existing support schemes to deliver change in the short term is underway. From the introduction of modest enhanced greening requirements to the calving interval conditionality for the Scottish Suckler Beef Support Scheme. These are changes designed to deliver for the environment and to maintain productivity.

We recognise, however, that reform must be fair and proportionate. That’s why, following engagement with the sector, we’ve introduced a small herd derogation from the 2026 scheme year, subject to legislation.

This will mean that businesses claiming ten calves or fewer will not be required to meet the 410-day calving interval. This ensures that smaller and island producers are supported appropriately, while maintaining the wider drive toward improved efficiency and lower emissions across the suckler beef sector.

We are continuing to provide resources to the livestock sector, by funding the MyHerdStats dashboard being delivered by SAOS.  So, if you’re not already using it please take a look, as it is incredibly valuable to you.

In the coming months we will publish our Rural Support Plan, that will updated every five years, that will set out how we deliver the changes while working with farmers, crofters, researchers, and rural communities. This has to be a collaboration and a partnership.

As part of this work, you will see a step change in the pace of future policy development. We are working at pace to develop our blue prints for future support – enabling us to provide clarity about changes to and future support that you need. Having that clarity will allow you to plan ahead with a degree of certainty.

Where we have the powers to protect and support the sector we will do so, as we all know there are many areas reserved to the UK which are having a negative impact upon your businesses. 

We only have to look at the unfair decision taken by the UK Government on Inheritance Tax to see the difficulties which can be caused to family farms, or the impacts of free trade deals.

These policies and many more merely seek to underline the need to continue to provide meaningful direct support to our farming businesses. And that is exactly what this Government is going to do, it’s what we’re determined to do, we’re going to deliver what we can with the powers available to us. b

I want to turn to the additional support we will be delivering through the Future Farming Investment Scheme (FFIS). 

At the Royal Highland Show we announced the launch of the £14 million Future Farming Investment Scheme (FFIS).  Last month we announced a substantial uplift of £7.4 million, increasing its total funding from £14 million to £21.4 million. 

It was a scheme that was designed with stakeholders including NFUS who wanted a scheme which provided upfront, flexible capital grant support with a wide range of priorities – you asked for it, we listened and we delivered it. 

The scheme was competitive, with over 7,700 applications worth in excess of £77 million. 

I know there will be many who applied who will have been disappointed not to be successful in this round. There is no getting away from that.

Going forward we will review the scheme to better understand what worked and where improvement could be made, to ensure it is more tightly targeted for any future rounds of the scheme. 

Officials have also undertaken further assurance checks on the assessment of applications for FFIS.  As a result of those checks, areas designated as Common Grazings have been removed when verifying the total area of land occupied by a crofting business for assessment purposes. 

We have also added a further source of data to verify Organic Certification and therefore determine eligibility. Officials have revalidated those further applications following these assurance checks and will now be able to issue a further 122 offers of grant, mainly to crofting and island businesses. 

That’s a significant boost of £21.4 million spread across over 1600 applicants and it reflects a serious commitment to advancing innovation and resilience across Scotland’s farming and food sectors.

I wanted to quickly touch upon a number of important schemes that we already do.

Firstly we announced earlier this month that the Agri-environment climate scheme (AECS) will be opening for applications in early 2026 and that funding for will be maintained until at least 2030. That allows businesses to plan ahead and support investments in nature and climate-friendly farming.

Over the last two years, the government has allocated £6 million worth of support to the valuable fruit and vegetable sector in Scotland.

Specifically, this support is helping producers adopt smarter growing systems, investing in low-carbon technologies and using data to drive better yields and reduce waste.  

That is in contrast to the UK government who are removing this support. The Scottish Government recognises the sector has been hard hit in a range of areas from labour problems exacerbated by Brexit, to increased costs for inputs such as energy and water scarcity.

Investment from the scheme is helping Scottish growers to remain committed to growing food and supporting our domestic production.

And at the Royal Highland Show, I was delighted to open the very first berries for Scotland event as the inaugural start of an annual berry festival, which I instigated at the start of the year, and I think that’s something we should be celebrating.

By definition our young farmers and new entrants are the absolute lifeblood of this industry, they are the future, their innovation and enthusiasm is refreshing, and I am passionate about doing more in order to be able to support them.

In a few weeks’ time we will be hosting a Next Generation summit with key representatives from NFUS and SAYFC and a range of senior government ministers, to listen and agree how we better support our young people.

Since taking office, I have been working at pace to create new tenancy opportunities across our public land.

Through the Farming Opportunities for New Entrants (FONE) group and the Scottish Land Matching Service (SLMS) we are working hard to encourage local authorities and other public body organisations to consider what opportunities they could provide for new entrant farmers and crofters.

I am very pleased to announce that Forestry and Land Scotland have identified 14 new entrant opportunities that will be offered through the next letting programme in Spring 2026, with timing to be aligned with the farming year and access to farm support.

In addition from 2026 FLS will move to grant longer term agreements to better support tenants and provide greater security for their businesses.

This year we also announced £1.8 million worth of funding for the Land-Based Pre-apprenticeship Programme and the Next Generation Practical Training Fund. Both of these initiatives were co-designed with the sector, with the NFUS being a main contributor and providing meaningful input to build capacity in the rural workforce. 

Supporting the next generation is the right thing to do – it is an essential part of Scottish agriculture and there is no one more determined to build that sector than this Government and myself.

In drawing my remarks to a close, I want to reassure you that this government is committed to supporting you now and in the future.

I am absolutely passionate about working with you to safeguard Scottish agriculture. Change can be unsettling, I actually get that – but there have always been changes and challenges. In an increasingly uncertain world, we have delivered stability and certainty, and we will continue to do so as we develop our future support systems. 

Where powers and policies remain reserved at Westminster we have to work together as Team Scotland to ensure our shared concerns are heard loud and clear, from trade deals, lack of investment in border biosecurity, changes to inheritance tax to unfair budget settlements which do not reflect the critical contribution of Scottish agriculture in a range of areas.

Now more than ever we need to work together in partnership to build a bright future for this industry, one which we can believe in, and one we have confidence in to invest in for the future.

Thank you very much.