Andrew Arbuckle: Rural sector spending set to wither on the vine

Thirty years ago, when I decided it was much easier writing about farming than doing it, one of the high points was getting to meet the UK minister of agriculture. At that time, these occasional meetings with UK ministers were important as they gave the lie of the land as far as farming in Scotland was concerned.

But times change and with devolution the need to find out the thoughts of the Westminster politicians faded. We initially had Ross Finnie and now we have Richard Lochhead available and able to cope with questions almost whenever we want.

So the attractions of the road south faded and the agricultural hacks settled down to rooting about in the Scottish agricultural patch. Out of force of habit I always check what is happening in England, but seldom does it have relevance.

I do not know if they do a count of their press statements and the issues covered, but as far as the NFU of England and Wales is concerned the number one topic in 2010 has to be the problems the countries have with bovine tuberculosis. Thankfully, this is not a big issue in Scotland.

It does seem as if the coalition government has picked up the challenge and is going to try test culls of badgers in several of the TB hot spots. Incidentally, the problem of TB in cattle was one of the main reasons why the English NFU was established 100 years ago.

Second on the list of the most numerous notices from the NFU – and I admit this is a little diversion from my theme – is the danger of Chinese lanterns. For those not familiar with this issue, these are miniature hot air balloons. Their attraction seems to be that these lanterns give off an ethereal glow when they are lit and then rise slowly in the summer night sky. This practice has moved far from the Chinese community and now seems to be part on many suburban barbeques down south.

That is the end of the diversion, but it does demonstrate the differing issues north and south of the Border. However, this week with the comprehensive spending review, there is suddenly a real link with what happens in Scotland. For weeks and months now, we have been bombarded by threats of cuts in public spending.

Defra, the English rural ministry department, is braced for massive cuts after being requested to offer up a 25-30 per cent reduction in its spending. Currently, it spends 2.9 billion annually so there are hundreds of millions to be cut from this particular pudding.

Scottish Government expenditure has so far been kept at previous levels, but this will not be the case for any budget set to operate from April 2011. It is possible that the current government may decide a reduced budget is a poisoned chalice going into a May election and there is then a possibility of the Scottish Parliamentary elections being brought forward to March.

But let us not go down that route and instead concentrate on what will happen in the rural sector. There is no doubt in my mind that the Scottish Rural Development Payment scheme will shrivel away to such an extent that it will do little other than support a few environmental projects. The vibes coming out of government suggest farmers should not count on big amounts of cash from this source.

This was confirmed last week by Lochhead, who said the Scottish block grant will take cuts, too, and both capital and revenue budgets will be affected. The Cabinet Secretary was responding to a question on the current suspension of the SRDP payments and the effect this is having in the pig sector, where new legislation requires capital investment in slurry stores.

He went on to say he could not comment other than confirm the support programme would not re-open until February next year.

My own view is that even when the door reopens, the bag of cash marked SRDP will be severely depleted.