The Scottish Conservatives will unveil a raft of rural policy measures at their conference in Glasgow this weekend.

In a The Scottish Farmer exclusive, the party will tell delegates it will ensure that food production is at the heart of the Agriculture Bill due to be laid before parliament later this year and allow farmers to produce more high-quality produce in Scotland.

A party spokesperson said it would ring-fence funding from the Rural Affairs and Islands Budget to support farmers and crofters and stop farmers having to transport food hundreds of miles to be processed by creating a rural development bank – a wing of the Scottish National Investment Bank.

In addition, the party says it will introduce a similar bill to the Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding Bill) that has been passed by the UK Government.

It will also amend the Good Food Nation Bill to improve local food targets – introducing a 60/60 target supporting local authorities to source 60% of their food, within 60 miles of the region.

The party rural affairs spokesperson, Rachael Hamilton MSP, said: “Vladimir Putin’s barbaric invasion of Ukraine – and the resultant inflationary pressures it has caused – have brought food security into sharp focus. I am delighted that we will be discussing it on the main stage at Scottish Conservative conference this weekend.

“The SNP is continually failing to prioritise this for our farmers, crofters and the agricultural sector. Any detailed plans on how they aim to protect food security going forward are sorely lacking.

“The sector in Scotland also continues to be let down by the steadfast opposition of nationalist ministers to giving gene editing technology the go-ahead here. They would rather play constitutional games than give Scottish farmers this much-needed boost.

“The failures of SNP ministers on this issue – under the malign influence of the extremist Greens – go beyond food security and have impacted Scotland’s entire food system.

“They have dithered and failed to give the sector the support and resources they need to play their part in hitting ambitious net zero targets.

“On the SNP’s watch, Scotland’s cash-starved councils have made little or no progress on sourcing food from local producers, when improving these rates would reduce emissions as well as supporting our food industry.

“The Scottish Conservatives are determined to ensure food security will be at the heart of the Agriculture Bill, while our bill on agriculture technology will utilise genetic technology – and be supported by our plans for a rural development bank.

“We are the only party standing up for rural Scotland, with tangible, detailed policies to meet their needs. In contrast, the scandal-ridden SNP government have ignored these areas during their 16 years in power.”

The party currently has 31 of 129 MSPs. The SNP have 64, Scottish Labour, 22 and the Greens have seven. One MSP, the Presiding Officer, has no party affiliation.