News

Letter to Keith Brown MSP

Wednesday, February 01, 2012

Dear Minister

Withdrawal of RET for hauliers

The Western Isles has more than one-third of all the registered crofts in Scotland which makes it an area of vital importance for the future wellbeing of crofting. Your colleague in the Scottish Government, Stewart Stephenson, has pledged to turn crofting from "a failing system" into a Scottish success story.

The Scottish Crofting Federation cannot understand how the anticipated dramatic increase in haulage charges that will result from removal of the RET scheme for hauliers to the Western Isles will contribute to meeting this pledge. Indeed, there is real fear among the islands' crofting communities that removing the RET scheme and replacing it with an inadequate discount scheme may cause chronic economic and social harm.

Please read the complete letter in the PDF (1.3mbs) below:-

Keith_Brown_letter.pdf

Crofters welcome delegation representing flood hit region of Pakistan

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

The Scottish Crofting Federation (SCF) recently welcomed a delegation representing a Highland area of Pakistan whose people are rebuilding their lives after suffering from the devastating floods and political violence in recent years.

In summer 2010 the Swat Valley, a region in northern Pakistan whose climate and environment has been likened to that of Switzerland and which had been one of the most popular tourist locations in Pakistan, was devastated by floods unprecedented in the history of Pakistan. This killed many hundreds of people and destroyed thousands of homes. Prior to this the Taliban established power in the valley, enforcing Sharia law. When the Pakistani army entered the area more than 2 million people fled their homes to avoid the fighting.

Crofters_welcome_delegation

SCF Warns Government that RET Proposals Could Lead to an Economic Landslide in the Western Isles

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

The Scottish Crofting Federation is warning the Government to urgently rethink plans to scrap Road Equivalent Tariff for commercial vehicles travelling to the Western Isles or risk an economic landslide sweeping through the islands. 

The Government is proposing that commercial vehicles should be removed from the RET scheme - which hauliers claim will increase their ferry fares by, in some cases, up to 150 per cent. However, large leisure vehicles, such as tour buses and camper vans, are to continue to receive the discount.

RET_Criticisms_Grow

SCF Criticises Lack of Information on Crofting Elections

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

The Scottish Crofting Federation has expressed disappointment at the lack of official information provided for candidates who are seeking election to the new Crofting Commission.

SCF Chair Derek Flyn said that late last year the SCF had been given assurances by a Crofters Commission representative that, before the deadline for nominations closed, a series of meetings would be held throughout the crofting counties at which information for potential candidates would be discussed.

Crofting_Elections_Latest

West Coast Landslip Emphasises Need For Skye and Lochalsh Abattoir, Says SCF

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

The landslip which has blocked the A890 road at Stromeferry for almost a month emphasises the need for an abattoir in Skye and Lochalsh, says the Scottish Crofting Federation.

The SCF maintains that closure of the A890 exacerbates the difficulties facing west coast crofters and farmers who currently have to take their animals to Dingwall for slaughter.

Landslip_Prompts_Abattoir

SCF BOARD CHANGE

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Eleanor Arthur has had to resign from the board of SCF for health reasons. She needs rest to recuperate and we wish her well in her recovery.

Derek Flyn will take over as chair for the interim to our AGM in June.

SCF_Board_Change

Crofters to mark the death of pioneering agricultural scientist Erna Bennett

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Erna Bennett, an Irish scientist whose pioneering work on agricultural biodiversity has contributed to raising awareness of the importance of conserving crofting seed varieties, died earlier this month at the age of 86.

Although she began her career as a genetic scientist, Erna Bennett’s work led her to become an outspoken advocate of the rights of farmers to maintain traditional seed varieties.

Agri-Scientist_Commemorated

SCF ENCOURAGES CROFTERS TO SEIZE HISTORIC OPPORTUNITY

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Anyone intending to be a candidate in the election to the new Crofting Commission must be nominated before the end of this month and the Scottish Crofting Federation is encouraging crofters to consider standing for the new body.

Until this year all members of the existing Crofters Commission have been appointed by Government. However, the new body, which takes up its responsibilities in April, will for the first time have representatives who have been elected by crofters themselves.

Historic_opportunity

Government must clarify future support to island hauliers post-RET

Thursday, December 22, 2011

The Scottish Crofting Federation want the Scottish Government to clarify, as a matter of urgency, how they are going to support island hauliers who are set to lose their entitlement to the road equivalent tariff (RET) on island ferries.

The SCF’s call comes amidst widespread concern that crofters and other islanders may lose out heavily as a result of the proposed changes to the RET announced by Government at the end of last month. 

Support_to_island_hauliers

Market research indicates significant opportunities for ‘crofting’ branded produce

Thursday, December 22, 2011

‘Crofts’ and ‘crofting’ are terms understood by nearly four fifths of the population of Scotland with a third to a half of Scottish people indicating they would be more likely to buy a product if they know it comes from a croft. These are some of the findings of a recent piece of market research commissioned by the Scottish Crofting Federation into the commercial potential of the crofting brand.

SCF member Russell Smith, who has been leading work to promote the crofting brand, said: “We commissioned this research to test the idea that the croft mark and croft tourism will ‘add value’ to crofting. That is, we want to know if they will allow crofters to sell more or achieve a higher price for products because the brand is intrinsically worth something to the consumer.

opportunities_for_‘crofting’

Ardnamurchan celebrates a new crofting dawn with training course success

Thursday, December 22, 2011

An area of north-west Scotland which became well-known a quarter of a century ago for depopulation and the erosion of one of its crofting communities is this month celebrating the completion of the Scottish Crofting Federation's introductory course, attended by more than 20 crofters of all levels of expertise.

'Night Falls on Ardnamurchan', a minor classic book by the Highland writer Alasdair Maclean which was published in 1984, famously described the decline of the crofting township of Sanna in the west-coast peninsula of Ardnamurchan in Lochaber.

Yet earlier this month that image, of Ardnamurchan's twilight, was replaced with a very different picture as 24 students completed the SCF course in the township of Kilchoan, not far from Sanna.

training_course_success

Call for the creation of a crofting support programme

Thursday, December 22, 2011

The call for a comprehensive, stand-alone crofting support programme to be a key element of Scotland’s future rural development policies was heard at a one-day conference held in Wester Ross today (Monday). The conference, which focussed on the key issue of how agricultural support in Scotland can be reformed to promote biodiversity and traditional crofting practices, was designed to influence the current decision-making process on the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy.

The CAP is being reformed at the moment with the intention of channelling funds toward those farmers who are actively using the land. The well-attended event was held in Plockton Hall and co-hosted by the Scottish Crofting Federation, the National Trust for Scotland and the Skye and Lochalsh Environment Forum.

Call_for_the_creation_of_a_crofting_support_system.pdf

Further retreat from the crofting hills evidence of need for agri-reform say crofters

Thursday, December 22, 2011

The Scottish Crofting Federation say that a new report on the state of upland agriculture in Scotland shows that there is little sign of recovery in livestock numbers for many of the most remote parts of the Highlands and Islands. The ‘Response from the Hills’ report was published on Wednesday (14th December) by the Scottish Agricultural College as a follow up to their 2008 report ‘Retreat from the Hills’ which revealed dramatic declines in sheep and cattle numbers in upland areas of Scotland, particularly in crofting areas.

This new research from SAC claims that during the last three years, supported by a surge in prices, “the retreat from the hills has stabilised” at national and regional levels. However, the report adds that in some localities decline has continued and, crucially, it shows that these localities tend to be in crofting areas, such as the Western Isles, Argyll and Lochaber.

Agri-reform_Evidence.pdf

Crofters raise the banner in Euro-seed protest

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Crofting was raising the banner during a recent protest in Europe against legislation which agriculturalists fear will be a tax on traditional farmers to support multinational seed corporations.

Two young members of the Scottish Crofting Federation, Karen MacRae and Susan Garde Pettie, both from Lochalsh, took part in the protest in Strasbourg while they were attending a training course in the French city.

Karen ended up leading the protest holding one end of the demonstrators' banner which read (in French): ‘Free to sow the seeds’. (Karen is on the left of the banner in the picture)She said they had gone on the demonstration to help raise awareness of a new law passed by the French Parliament that is putting a tax on farmers who save their own seeds. The benefits of the tax are to go on agricultural research and development.

Strasbourg_seeds_demonstration.pdf

INTERNATIONAL EVIDENCE THAT SCOTTISH AGRICULTURAL POLICY NEEDS RADICAL CHANGE OF DIRECTION, SAY SCF

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Crofters claim that a senior Scottish National Party Euro-politician’s remarks on the need to do away with ‘business-as-usual’ farming throw into serious doubt some of the Scottish Government's current proposals for the future of Scotland's agriculture.

The remarks, made on Tuesday by SNP’s MEP Alyn Smith who is a member of the European Parliament's Rural Affairs and Agriculture Committee and is also the SNP's agriculture spokesman, have been welcomed by the Scottish Crofting Federation. The SCF say it gives further weight to arguments that many of the recommendations in the Pack Report which are being taken forward by the Scottish Government do not contribute to necessary deep and rapid agricultural change in Scotland towards less-intensive, smaller scale approaches, such as crofting.

AGRICULTURAL_POLICY_NEEDS_RADICAL_CHANGE.pdf