Rural Economy Secretary Fergus Ewing has called on farmers to respond to Stability and Simplicity: proposals for a rural funding transition period consultation paper.
He said: ‘As we are taken out of the EU, we must decide how radical we wish to be and, importantly, how fast we wish to change. My priority remains providing people in rural businesses with as much security as possible, which is why I published the most comprehensive farming Brexit paper to be found in the UK last month. ‘The proposals aim to provide stability, certainty and simplicity for rural businesses in the period immediately after Scotland might have to leave the EU in 2019, with the central measure being a transition period of between three and five years – as suggested by the Agricultural Champions. It sets out ideas for short-term simplift cation that could help claimants of CAPrelated support. It asks questions on how best to support and integrate agriculture into the broader rural economy over the transition period and beyond and it seeks views on how pilot projects might be developed and used to test different approaches to rural support. It marks the start of the process of developing a new rural support policy and forms part of the civic conversation being led by the National Council of Rural Advisors over the summer. That is why it is important for farmers and rural businesses to submit their views.’