Nancy Nicolson Biggest issue decided, but much remains unclear

The biggest political issue facing Scottish farming has been decided.

The election result means there is no longer any doubt that the current relationship with our biggest international trading partner is terminal, and no question that new tariffs and trade deals will impact sharply on the destination and prices of food produced in Scotland’s fields.

And so long as the Tories deliver on Michael Gove’s election promise, farm support levels will continue at current levels for the lifetime of this parliament

However, much remains unclear.

The detail of deals will take months or, more likely, years to finalise, and a very real prospect remains of cheap food being imported from the United States, Brazil and elsewhere with lower welfare and sustainability standards than those upheld by British farmers.

That would have serious implications for the competitiveness of high-cost Scottish agriculture.

The election result also hasn’t clarified how the industry will find enough migrant labour to pick fruit and vegetables, milk cows, feed pigs, or man the abattoirs.

Lobbying organisations now urgently need to seek an extension to this year’s meagre pilot Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme.

We can surely expect, now that the election’s purdah period is over, an imminent slew of detail from the Scottish Government on how this year’s convergence bonus will be divvied up.

However, the Scottish industry is crying out for detail and structure.

More than ever we need the rural economy secretary to get off the fence and set out a clear agricultural policy for the country.

It may not solve arable growers’ increasing dismay over flooded land and the implications for the 2020 harvest, or questions on the prospects of markets for next year’s crop of lambs or calves, but farmers deserve clarification on the government’s direction of travel and a support framework that will steer the industry through the glaur.