Politics

Rural Affairs Secretary Mairi Gougeon has confirmed she will not be standing as an SNP candidate in next year's Scottish Parliamentary elections. Has she served Scottish farmers well during her time in Government?

This week from Farmers Guardian editor Olivia Midgley

Wildfarmed's Andy Cato writes on Defra's SFI24 closure, why it is vital that farmers receive support for their efforts in nature and climate recovery, and why nature-rich food production should be seen as the most valuable of investments rather than a subsidy by Government

Mr Carmichael, chair of the Efra Committee, writes about the need to address the problem of low farm incomes, how his Food Supply Chain Fairness Bill could help shift the dial for farmers in getting a fair price for their produce, and the need to take on the supermarket giants and give back power to farmers

Despite the Government's own website stating that it would give farmers six week notice before the closure of SFI, the Farming Minister Daniel Zeichner said it was not possible, as it would have led to a ‘further spike in applications'

Mr Dunn said: "Out of the £2.4 billion of budget allocated for the full panoply of schemes under the Agricultural Transition Plan, we need to know how much has been allocated to each element"

SFI24 now has more than 37,000 multi-year live agreements and has reached its ‘maximum limit' and can no longer accept new SFI applications from today

Alistair Carmichael asked for clarification when IPAFFS , Defra's IT system import of products, animals, food and feed system was successfully updated and operating as intended to reflect the policy change made on January 10 in response to the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak

Gov has described changes to Inheritance Tax and Agricultural Property Relief as 'generous' compared to reliefs in 1992