Agricultural Support Payments
The Agricultural Support Payments section of the SRUC report Rural and Agricultural Development: Maximising the potential in the islands of Orkney, Shetland and Outer Hebrides can be downloaded as a stand alone document from the link below. This section draws on Scottish Government data provided to SRUC through a comprehensive Data Sharing Agreement. The support payments and associated land and livestock data for individual businesses for 2014 to 2022 underpin the analysis alongside the June Agricultural Census. A selection of the points raised in this section of the report includes:
Whilst nominal levels of agricultural support spend remained relatively static for Scotland between 2014 and 2022 at c.£554m, in real (inflation adjusted) terms there was a 33% decline in the budget - meaning the support received would buy a third less agricultural inputs.- A historic allocation of land to Basic Payment Regions (BPS) regions dictates the levels of support received. Historic stocking densities (based on the Less Favoured Areas Support Scheme) were the basis for allocating rough grazing land parcels into Regions back in 2014. In 2023 the BPS + Greening rate in Region 3 was £13.76 compared to £45.36 in Region 2 (3.3 times higher than Region 3 rough grazing) and £223.56 in Region 1 (4.9 times higher than R2 and 16.2 times higher than Region 3 land).
- In Orkney 67% of the land eligible for BPS was in Region 1 in 2022 with 24% in Region 2 and 9% in Region 3. In contrast in Shetland only 15% of the land was in Region 1, with 56% in Region 2 and 29% in Region 3 - whilst in the Outer Hebrides only 13% of the land was in Region 1, with 14% in Region 2 and 73% in Region 3.
- There was contraction in the agricultural business base claiming direct support between 2014 and 2022 - with 13% decline in Orkney, 30% contraction in the Outer Hebrides, and 19% drop in Shetland.
- Support levels are determined by the amount and quality of land being 'actively farmed' and the number of livestock kept. In the Outer Hebrides 25% of claimants received less than £731 in 2022 compared to £1,079 in Shetland, £2,972 in the Rest of Scotland and £3,010 in Orkney. The median payment rate for the Rest of Scotland was £10.1k compared to £7.8k in Orkney, £2.8k in Shetland and £1.3k in the Outer Hebrides. One percent of the largest recipients in the Outer Hebrides received over £17.6k in 2022, considerably lower than in Shetland (£43.3k) and Orkney (£62k), but particularly when compared to the rest of Scotland (£110.4k).
The download link to this section of the report is found below, or you can return to the main report page here.
