Subject to European Commission andScottish Parliament approval, I intend to introduce these improvements from 1 April 2004.The Scottish Executive gives priority to organic projects under its processing and marketinggrants scheme and marketing development scheme. As an example, out of the £11.9million of funding for the lowland agricultural processing and marketing grant scheme,44% of this funding has gone to projects with an organic processing andmarketing element.The Scottish Executive has recently commissioned a study to identify areas of research needfor the organic farming market to function effectively in Scotland.The Scottish Executive also funds the Scottish Agricultural College to operate an “Organic Helpline” providing freeadvice to farmers wishing to convert to organic farming.