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Scottish Government support schemes available to farmers, crofters and land managers to support nature-rich farming and a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions are:

Agri-Environment Climate Scheme (AECS)

AECS provides important funding to the sector to help achieve our commitment to support farmers, crofters, and land managers to support and deliver nature restoration. To date a total of £242 million has been committed to 2,970 businesses of which a total of 495 organics contracts have been approved, with £28.8m committed.

Sustainable Agriculture Capital Grant Scheme (SACGS)

The scheme opened on 26 April 2022 to Scottish farmers, crofters and agricultural contractors who store and/or spread livestock slurry or digestate. 3,148 businesses have been supported over the life span of the scheme with a total of £12.80m invested. As of the 12 July 2022 we have issued a further 572 SACGS 2022 offers of grant worth £4.74m.

Crofting Agricultural Grant Scheme (CAGS)

A part of crofting activity revolves around livestock production associated with low-intensity systems of high nature value with a natural balance between food production and the environment. From 2016 to 2022 over £16m in CAGS funding has been approved, helping over 3,000 crofters with their businesses – 85% of all eligible applications being approved.

Knowledge Transfer and Innovation Fund (KTIF)

The Fund periodically opens to support knowledge transfer and innovation based projects contributing to improving biodiversity or emission reductions. Since 2015, Scottish Government has supported 45 projects under the KTIF to a tune of approximately £7.5 million. The Fund has supported just under 20 different organisations and in 2021 the knowledge transfer based projects alone ran training events which had a total attendance of roughly 1,500.

Scotland’s Farm Advisory Service (FAS)

FAS provides a range of low and no cost ideas to help farmers identify, support and improve biodiversity on their land, raising awareness of woodland planting and the benefits for businesses, carbon sequestration and habitat and ideas to help farmers manage carbon on their farm and adapt to a changing climate, making their business more resilient to future changes. Since 2016 Scottish Government has supported the FAS to a tune of just under £21 million as of May 2022, delivering over 4,300 bespoke advice products. In 2021 FAS delivered 167 events to approximately 5,000 farmers, crofters and land managers.

Forestry Grant Scheme (FGS)

In the life of FGS, we have approved £312m worth of projects, providing financial support for the creation of new woodland and the sustainable management of existing woodland, to 3,816 projects (completed) from a total number of 5,204 projects with approved funding. Payments to date amount to circa £235m.

To meet our increasing ambitions to deliver greater woodland creation hectares year on year until 2024/25, we have a proposed budget of £71m for the financial year (22/23) and a further £76m and £80m proposed for the following two financial years.

The Agri Environment Climate Scheme (AECS) has supported the conversion of over 34,000 Ha of land to organic standards over the life of the Scheme and the total area under management in 2022 is 85,077 Ha. To date a total of 495 organics contracts have been approved, with £28.8m committed. Historically very few applications for organic conversion have been denied where they meet the eligibility criteria, and approvals from the 2021 round in particular have seen the area of organic land receiving support increase by a fifth from the previous year.

Applications for organic conversion support in the AECS 2022 round are currently being assessed and no approval decisions have been made, however I can confirm that SG received applications from 34 businesses. Once assessed, this has the potential to put more than 8,000 Ha into organic conversion from 2023, across all land type options under the Scheme.

We are committed to extending AECS up to the end of the period of stability in 2024. This will continue to underpin the ambition for organic farming set out Programme for Government 2021-22, alongside a suite of other measures aimed at promoting low carbon farming and protecting the environment. We also will seek new opportunities to prioritise local and organic produce in public sector menus, and we are committed to seeing more organic farming and organic produce for sale in Scotland. We will work with the sector to establish a new Organic Food and Farming Action Plan.

Through the ClimateXChange centre of expertise the Scottish Government has received expert advice on the use of animal feed additives which have the potential to reduce methane emissions. This advice has suggested that more data are needed to assess the full potential of feed additives and feed materials in reducing methane emissions from livestock.

FSS and FSA are responsible for assessing animal feed safety in GB. Any new innovative feed material would be considered through the feed risk analysis process. For feed additives these are products that require to be authorised by the GB regulated product process before they can be sold and used in animal feed in GB and may only be used for the purpose stated in the authorisation. The FSA and FSS carry out the risk analysis process for regulated products such as feed additives and provide advice to Ministers who decide whether the product can be placed on the market in England, Wales and Scotland. Feed additives intended to reduce methane production in ruminants are new and highly innovative feed additives and within the GB regulated products application process are being categorised and risk assessed as; zootechnical feed additives under the functional group ‘as substances which favourably affect the environment’.

No methane inhibiting feed additive products have yet been approved for use in Scotland but the Scottish Government has been receiving interest from the livestock industry about the potential of such products. In their report last year the Suckler Beef Climage Group noted the potential of such products in reducing overall methane emissions.

It is likely that such products will be authorised on a GB basis due to the applications for the authorisation of a regulated food or feed product or process in GB. As such Scottish Government officials are working with other GB administrations to consider the best approach to strengthening engagement with industry on this topic to understand the potential of such new technologies in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Proposals for future agricultural support will be co-developed with rural partners through the Agriculture Reform Implementation Oversight Board (ARIOB) and with wider civil society through a consultation in summer 2022 to inform the introduction of a Scottish Agriculture Bill in 2023.

The Scottish Government is currently carrying out a review of PDR in Scotland. This is being taken forward in phases, with each phase focussing on new/extended PDR for specific development types. We have committed to consider updated PDR for renewable energy apparatus – including non-domestic solar – as part of the review programme and we will consult on proposals for change in due course.

I wrote to the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee on 22 June confirming that I now intend to lay a revised NPF4 in the Scottish Parliament in the autumn. This is in order to ensure there is sufficient time to fully consider the detailed responses submitted during the consultation period and to ensure that the finalised version is robust for the important role that NPF4 will have in the planning system.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of energy generated from solar PV in contributing to the decarbonisation of Scotland’s energy supply, and helping us meet our targets for a net zero emissions society by 2045.

In support of this, the Scottish Government will, in consultation with the solar sector, establish a vision for the future of solar energy in the forthcoming Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan, which will be published later this year. We expect this vision to act as a signal for the solar industry going forward and it is important that we take the time to ensure that the vision is fully considered in context of the whole energy system.

I met with Solar Energy Scotland (SES) in February, with the Minister for Public Finance, Planning and Community Wealth meeting with them in May. In addition to ministerial meetings, officials have also been meeting with SES regularly, and they have been invited to join the Renewable Energy Strategic Leadership Group (RESLG). Continued official engagement is planned over the summer as the solar vision develops. The solar vision will form part of the Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan, which will be published later this year.

The Scottish Government has worked jointly with the food and drink industry on the development of a Food & Drink Recovery Plan which has over 50 actions to help the sector recover from the effects of Covid and Brexit. The plan, which has been supported by £15m of Scottish Government funding over 2020-2023, includes ongoing work to assess the current capabilities and development opportunities for all parts of the food and drink industry (including food processing). We are working with the Scotland Food & Drink Partnership during 2022 to build on this work through the refresh of the “Ambition 2030” food and drink industry strategy, which was the industry’s main focus pre-Covid. We expect more information on a revised strategy to become available later in 2022.

A new £7.3m funding round for the Food Processing and Marketing Cooperation (FPMC) grant scheme also ran in late 2021 to support food processors in developing local supply chains and transitioning to net zero operations. All applications have been assessed and 29 businesses were successful in receiving a share of the funding. A further £10.2m round was launched on 9 May 2022 and closed for applications on 19 June 2022. Applications are now in the process of being assessed, with decisions expected later in the summer.