Farmers' Brexit finding fears

By Peter MacMahon, ITV Border Political Editor:

In the late summer sun, or even the late summer soft rain, Dumfriesshire has a quiet beauty to it.

It is picturesque, peaceful...and pastoral.

Yet from travelling around the area I've found that beneath this rural tranquility, there's growing anxiety over the future of farming once the UK leaves the EU.

And that includes the future for farmers like Andrew McCornick who farms some 440 acres in the area, and is also the vice-president of the National Farmers' Union in Scotland, the NFUS.

This is what he told me:

And that throws the ball firmly into the politicians court, politicians at both Holyrood and Westminster.

For now, we do not know much, if anything about what will happen to the Common Agricultural Policy funds in Scotland.

Between 2014 and 2019 Scotland will get just over £3 billion from the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy - CAP - budget.

That figure, converted from euros, is for the main support to agriculture, what is known in the jargon as 'Pillar 1' support.

There is also 'Pill 2' support of more than £400m over five years, which goes mainly to schemes to preserve and enhance the landscape - environmental improvement.

With the money from Europe set to end, who should fund farming? Just back from Germany, and trying to keep Scotland in the EU somehow, Nicola Sturgeon is clear.

She says:

One opposition MSP who campaigned for Remain is to meet the new UK farming minister, Environment Secretary Andrea Leadsom - this month, and says the SNP government should follow suit.

Finlay Carson, the MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, says:

But despite farmers fears, a fellow Tory who campaigned for Leave says even the current system wasn't stable.

Oliver Mundell, the MSP for Dumfriesshire, told me:

I asked him, to be clear, was his position that farmers will, after the Uk has left the European Union, get the same level of support as they currently do in Scotland?

Mr Mundell replied:

Farmers are used to uncertainty, but known uncertainties. The cost of feed or seed, the price they get for their crops or livestock. Or even the weather. What they worry about now is the unknown uncertainty of 'Brexit'.

As Mr McCornick told me:

What that future is, is now for the politicians to decide?

And there are some indications. There was even a possibility of a statement, or announcement, from Ms Leadsom today.

I understand something will come within a matter of weeks as Ms Leadsom - a Leave supporter - is not only under pressure from Scotland but from Tory MPs in England, both 'leavers' and 'remainers'.

That is likely to amount - broadly - to a steady as she goes statement, reassuring farmers that in the short terms at least little, if anything, will change.

Longer term through there is the possibility of re-shaping farming support, something Mr Mundell was supporting and something his father, David, the UK Secretary of State for Scotland, will be heavily involved in.

Could it be there there could be different kinds of support to farms, rather than the current systems? Very early days, but it is true that the current system is a compromise designed to work across the whole of the EU.The big question, of course, is what level of funding will there be once the UK does leave the EU.

Before the referendum, as Ms Sturgeon pointed out, there were reassurances from the 'Leave' side that farming subsidies would continue.Farmers will expect that promise to be delivered.

Which shows what a canny appointment by Prime Minister Theresa May the new environment secretary was.

Over to you Andrea.