Land

The agricultural European Innovation Partnership (EIP-AGRI) has issued a call for experts for two new Focus Groups.

Do you have practical experience or specific knowledge in the following areas?

Soil Association are looking for new Field Lab ideas to test new farming approaches, share best practice and solve problems.

Field Labs bring agricultural research directly to the field and the shed, bringing farmers and growers together with a researcher and a dedicated facilitator to focus on your own research questions. Field Labs in Scotland are free to attend and open to all farmers and growers, not just organic ones.

Three short videos from the Future of Crofting conference held in December 2015 are now available to watch online.

The Scottish Crofting Federation (SCF) conference was held in Inverness and looked at progress made on crofting reform in the seven years since the Committee of Inquiry on Crofting.

The new Forth Valley and Lomond LEADER programme launched on Friday 29 January, with £2.78 million of funding to be invested in rural communities across the region.

The event took place at the Callander Youth Project, which was voted Scotland’s top youth project in 2015. Peter Sunderland, Local Action Group Chair, highlighted examples of good practice, including one which inspired a participant to become an international expert on project continuity. 

Farmers affected by recent floods can now apply for a grant to help repair man-made floodbanks.

The Agricultural Floodbank Repair Grant Scheme was announced by the First Minister earlier this year, with £1 million being set aside to fund the repair of man-made floodbanks on farms in nine local authorities: Dumfries and Galloway, Scottish Borders, Perth and Kinross, Stirling, South Lanarkshire, Aberdeenshire, City of Aberdeen, Angus and East Ayrshire.

Rural Affairs Secretary Richard Lochhead said:

Research findings and a report on the evaluation of two regional land use pilot projects have been published.

In 2013, the Scottish Government initiated two regional land use pilot projects in Aberdeenshire and the Scottish Borders to test an innovative approach to land use decision-making. An independent evaluation was carried out in parallel with the pilot projects to consider the processes of developing and managing the projects as well as the final outputs.

A new Action Plan for organic food and farming in Scotland from 2016 to 2020 has been launched.

"Organic Ambitions: Scotland’s Organic Action Plan 2016 – 2020" aims to help organic food and farming build a more sustainable future, regenerate the rural economy and conserve biodiversity and natural resources.

The Action Plan identifies the key challenges facing the development of Scottish organic food and the actions required to address them.

Over 100 people from across rural Perthshire braved the snow and ice to attend the launch of the Rural Perth & Kinross LEADER programme on 14 January. 

After a spot of networking at the various stands the meeting commenced with the Local Action Group Chair, with Jackie Brierton speaking passionately about the opportunities that the Local Development Strategy offers in terms of stronger networking, collaboration, a well connected sustainable local economy with communities coming together.