Crofters call for improved support from Scottish government

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-34277913

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A group of Sutherland crofters have appealed to the Scottish government to introduce a "fairer" subsidy system for hill farmers.

They have accused the government of favouring arable farming and want similar levels of subsidy payments as their English and Welsh counterparts.

Hill farms in England and Wales receive up to almost 13 times more per hectare.

The government said payments for crofting overall would go up from £20m to £33m by 2019.

But David Forbes, who runs a croft at Kinlochbervie, said the basic payment of £7 was not enough to help encourage people to remain in fragile communities.

He said: "This community will die.

"The youth will disappear and we cannot keep the schools open when the population drops."

Mr Forbes added: "The Scottish government will just complete a modern-day Highland Clearance and I think that a lot of people think that is what they want.

"They want a wild land, a wilderness. The definition of a wilderness is an area devoid of people."

'Very diverse'

Rural Affairs Secretary Richard Lochhead said the government had come up with a subsidy system that supports a range of farming types.

He said: "Scottish agriculture is very diverse. We have big arable farms and we have crofters as well.

"What we have had to do is come up with a system that targets activity and pays different rates of payment for different types of land, and we agreed that with the industry."

Mr Lochhead said payments to crofters overall would go up from £20m a year to £33m by 2019.

He added: "Within that, if there are individual crofters or crofting communities whose payments are going down and that is not justified clearly we will want to look at that in future years."