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Seòmar agus comataidhean

Future Farming Investment Scheme

  • Submitted by: Liam McArthur, Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats.
  • Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 January 2026
  • Motion type: Members' Business Motion
  • Motion reference: S6M-20316
  • Current status: Has not yet achieved cross-party support

That the Parliament acknowledges that the Future Farming Investment Scheme sought to provide farmers and crofters with funding to help them buy new machinery, improve efficiency or reduce emissions with particular priority to islanders, new entrants, young farmers and tenant farmers; notes with concern reports that fewer than one in 10 small farms and crofters seem to have received the funding that they applied for, with 47% of applications deemed ineligible and only 3.7% of applications from Orkney and 1.88% of applications from Shetland supported; further notes reports that small farms across Scotland in the Highlands, Aberdeenshire, Argyll and Bute, and Dumfries also did not receive what it sees as this vital funding; believes that much of the communication around this scheme has caused confusion, and indeed anger, among those in the agricultural sector; recognises that demand for the scheme will have been high; expresses deep regret, however, that so few small, island and young farmers were successful, despite seemingly being from a priority group, and notes the calls on the Scottish Government to provide further clarity on how the funding for the scheme was allocated, as well as to publish its paper on the Future Farming Investment Scheme, as committed to by the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands on 10 December 2025.