Chamber and committees

Does the member share my confusion that some parties in this Parliament—I am thinking of the Labour Party—seem not to be overly bothered by the issues that she raises, despite the fact that the last time this Parliament was subjected to vetoes to its legislation to this extent, Queen Anne was on the throne?

Will the member taken an intervention?

Will the member take an intervention?

I am sorry—I do not think that the Conservatives can, on the one hand, say that the legislative process is slow and, on the other, say that there is too much legislation. I think that that is a difficult point for the member to make, but well done to him for trying nonetheless.

Around a quarter of Scotland’s total greenhouse gas emissions come from our agriculture sector. However, at the same time, it is also one of the sectors that is most affected by climate change. Flooding, drought, extreme weather and increased pest and disease risks are all conditions that crofters and farmers face and will have to adapt to in the coming years and decades. As usual, I will focus first on some of the issues of that kind and others that face my island community specifically, as well as agriculture in less favoured areas more generally. In those areas, agriculture is far from intensive, and the most immediate threat, which others have alluded to, is that agricultural activity falls below a certain level, which makes whole agricultural communities and local economies difficult to sustain.

There may well be a global re-examination of the levels of meat consumption. However, when we look at the 85 per cent of Scotland’s land mass that is classified as a less favoured area, we need to recognise that much of that land has very limited capacity, in economic terms, to be used for anything other than grazing livestock. Indeed, livestock help to create biodiversity and, particularly on the west coast, can be used as part of conservation efforts.

That is not to say that we should not encourage diversification, but we need to accept facts—not least the fact that grazed landscapes, at least in the context of non-intensive forms of agriculture, are necessary habitats for some of our rarest bird species.

Crofting and upland farming hold out models for such non-intensive activity and yet, as any hill farmer or crofter will point out, they are not where the balance of agricultural payments currently lies. If anything, the crofting landscape faces underutilisation rather than overexploitation. That is partly because half of crofters gain as little as £1,400 a year in agricultural subsidies under the present support regime. I hope that the Government will address that.

My point is that many forms of livestock agriculture can demonstrate that they are working with the environment but do not presently get rewarded for that.

Some of the questions that have been asked in the crofting counties are difficult to separate from the need for crofting law reform. To take but one example of that, the point is regularly put to me that the right of veto for a single shareholder in a common grazings can sometimes make it difficult for a community to invest in agri-environmental schemes or any other collective form of activity.

Am I running out of time, Presiding Officer?

Inevitably, the phrase “pre-legislative scrutiny” always becomes a slight contradiction in terms. As expected, and in line with the Scottish Government’s plans, there is not yet legislation for the committee to scrutinise in detail. However, as others—and not just from my party—have pointed out, it would be difficult to legislate in detail at this distance without a clearer indication from the UK Government about the financial envelope in which the Scottish Government would be expected to work.

Given the enormity of the legislation that is coming, it is right that the committee looks at the issues that are facing rural Scotland. As others have said, agriculture policy in the future will need to balance requirements in order to ensure that agriculture is a profitable activity that it is carried out in a way that meets our aims for biodiversity and carbon reduction, strengthens rural communities and ensures that there is food security and good public health. Of course, there is an environmental context to the legislation, and a consensus among most—which certainly includes the farmers that I know—about the need to tackle both biodiversity loss and the threats to habitat that have in the past been associated with more intensive forms of farming.

Thank you, Presiding Officer. Controversial as it will inevitably be, a crofting law reform bill will be helpful and is needed to resolve some questions. I hope that it will also be part of the solution to deal with the increase in speculation on croft tenancies.

Last month, an offer was made on a croft tenancy—not a purchase of a croft but just the right to become the tenant. The tenancy, which was in Harris, was marketed for more than £200,000, which is beyond the financial reach of virtually anybody who is a crofter on Harris. We are in the perverse situation where crofts are underutilised but overcommodified, and I look forward to measures to deal with that.

To look at the wider picture and at the funding landscape, which we began by looking at, we need clarity from the UK Government about the financial envelope within which Scotland can act, and I look forward to seeing that.

Will the member give way?

Can you say a bit more about how island communities play a role in assessing the impact of what the islands plan is achieving? By that, I am referring not just to the important quantitative data that you have just talked about, but to qualitative opinion. How do you measure that?

You are liaising with local authorities, but are you also liaising with individual island communities? You know what I am going to say. For people in certain islands—I will not name the islands—the local authority is not only distant but does not have much sympathy with them. How do you ensure that you are liaising with specific islands and not just with local authorities that are distant beasts?