“The prizes ... of turning farming into a low emissions sector are significant... They are needed to meet Scotland’s climate change targets. The challenge is to ensure food production can...make the sector financially, as well as environmentally, sustainable.”
There is an acceptance that due to the natural processes involved, there will always be emissions from the sector and hence focus is on efficiency to reduce emissions per output, and to increase sequestration activities.
Livestock farming will have to continue to play a key role in farming if the sector is to continue to produce similar levels of food in the future as the vast majority of land in Scotland is only able to support livestock farming due to geology and terrain.
Many mitigation measures promoted by the Scottish Government are linked to “good practice”, for example limiting soil erosion by utilising cover crops or fixing nitrogen in the soil using clover to reduce fertiliser use. In some cases, these will deliver net financial benefits to the farmer.
Other measures, such as updating manure stores, installing anaerobic digestion or limiting farming activity on certain soils, will mean upfront costs or potential income foregone.
Translating theory into practice, in relatively small businesses that already deal with massive risks on a yearly basis, is a challenge not to be underestimated. The time required to learn and understand measures and how they work is also a ‘cost’ to farmers.
Of course, farming could also be a key beneficiary of efforts to halt climate change. Unpredictable weather and greater intensity of extreme conditions, be it rain, sun or snow, heightens the risks already inherent in farming.
The next few years already hold plenty of other challenges for farmers to face, including the move away from EU to domestic subsidies. Whilst this will create opportunities for support to be delivered to meet national goals in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, the uncertainty and upheaval it creates may be difficult for farmers to contend with given often precarious financial situations: the average farm business made a loss of £17,100 without support on average in the years 2016–20.
The prizes in terms of turning farming into a low emissions sector are significant, and necessary, to meet Scotland’s climate change targets. The challenge is to ensure food production can operate at a sufficient scale and quality to make the sector financially, as well as environmentally, sustainable.