The Scottish Government’s flagship National Test Programme has only received 219 claims so far – 15,000 farmers were asked to apply to the first phase called Preparing for Sustainable Farming (PSF).

The Government has said it was hoping for a late run of applications, with farmers still able to submit claims up until the end of February.

But speaking at the Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment committee, Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and Islands, Mairi Gougeon, said they were 'really disappointed by the low uptake of the scheme so far,' adding: "But that is why the work that we have been undertaking with the agriculture reform implementation oversight board – ARIOB – has been important in helping us to design schemes that are easy to access and offer the right incentives. I believe that we have provided that through the scheme, even though the uptake through it has not been what we would want to see.”

“When we were budgeting for the scheme, because it is demand led, we did not know how big the uptake would be. Obviously, we want to be better prepared.

"It is better for us to be in that situation rather than to be in the opposite situation, in which we overspend a fund and are then not able to fund all the claims that we receive as part of that. The forecast for the first part is £2m – we expect a lot of claims to come through at the tail end.”

Farmers had until the end of December to complete the work with claims needing to be submitted two months later. At the end of January, The Scottish Farmer discovered that the total claims to the National Test Programme was 219, which was made up of 81 carbon tests and 138 soil tests.

Convenor of the Rural Affairs committee, Finlay Caron, said: “Given that funding is available for something that is the key to future profitability, future low-impact farming and so on, it seems bizarre that we have had such a massively slow uptake.”

A Scottish Government spokesperson added: “We remain committed to supporting farmers and crofters in their transition to agricultural methods that are both efficient and sustainable.

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“The deadline to claim for carbon audit and soil sampling work undertaking in 2022 is the end of February this year. We expect the majority of farmers and crofters participating in 2022 to submit claims close to the deadline, at which point we will have a clear picture of the uptake during the first year of the scheme.

“We will be working with 2022 claimants to promote the benefits of participation for their businesses building knowledge and understanding across the industry.”

The government stated that the purpose of Preparing for Sustainable Farming (PSF) is to encourage farmers and crofters to improve their knowledge of current environmental performance and efficiency on their farms. Support will incentivise businesses to engage with and adopt measures that will create a baseline of information and understanding in sustainable agriculture.

PSF Phase One (live now) offers every farmer, crofter, and land manager in Scotland support for a carbon audit. If they have already completed an audit, then they can receive support for soil sampling. This is developed in conjunction with the industry to ensure the opportunity is simple to use, flexible for various sampling techniques, utilises best practice, and does not exclude those farmers already preparing for the future.

In addition, farmers and crofters with suckler cows are provided with access to performance data relating to their herd. These opportunities will continue to be available for the scheme year 2024 – January 1 to December 31.