Last year was a busy year for the Scottish Crofting Federation and with the welcome return of in person meetings, we have been able to hold events in halls across the Highlands and Islands once again.

We have represented the crofting’s interests in several consultations, attended many meetings and continued to make the case for crofting in Scotland today. The year ahead looks set to be just as busy.

Agricultural policy reform is still dominating much of our work. We have consistently called for Scottish Government to provide more detail on their plans for future agricultural policy in Scotland. Like others, we had hoped that the Agriculture Bill consultation would be used to provide this detail, unfortunately it only brought more uncertainty.

It is becoming increasingly clear that the lack of detail emerging is a symptom of a wider problem around the process that Scottish Government has adopted. By focussing on elements of the policy in isolation, they are tying themselves in a knot of chicken and egg scenarios that prevent progress being made. Government needs to get out of this rut in 2023.

While there is, of course, uncertainty for the year ahead, there are clear opportunities for crofting. From what we do know about Scottish Government priorities there are obvious parallels with what crofting is already delivering on the ground.

An increasing focus on biodiversity fits well with the high nature value farming typical of many crofting businesses. Crofters manage a significant portion of Scotland’s peatland, which will be key to meeting climate ambitions.

On efforts to reverse trends of rural depopulation, particularly in island communities, crofting tenure provides a powerful tool to help achieve this, a role it has played for over 100 years. When it comes to land reform ambitions, crofting tenure again offers a useful solution in the creation of new crofts.

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With increasing uncertainty around food security, the ability of crofting to provide high quality food is also very important.

If these ambitions are to be realised, Scottish Government must recognise the value of crofting and other small scale food producers. This will require the future agricultural policy to acknowledge the importance of crofting and the need to ensure that the way support is delivered enables crofters to continue to deliver the good outcomes they are achieving, and support them to make improvements where necessary.

Crofting law reform will also be critical, and I hope that a timetable outlining when the new bill should be expected is published shortly. Also crucial is the existing regulation of the system, the Crofting Commission has made improvements to its function but these need to be sustained and continued if the crofting system is to deliver all that we know it can.

Crofting is set to face other challenges in 2023, agricultural inflation is going to force changes in crofting practices at a rate far greater than any government policy could, this is very concerning and with prices for our outputs either back or on a par with last year, margins are being squeezed even further.

And the thing we have least control over, the weather, will be sure to challenge us in the year ahead. Like many areas, we have had an exceptionally wet autumn and early winter here in Lewis, let’s hope for better weather in 2023.

Crofting is a resilient system, with the right support, it will be able to overcome these challenges and embrace the opportunities on the year ahead. A very Happy New Year to you all.