Arable Climate Change Group - a new blueprint for Scotland's arable sector: report

Implementation

The ambitious targets contained within the Scottish Government Climate Change Plan have been clearly articulated within this report. It is now the job of industry and its supporting bodies to demonstrate the most effective way for them to be achieved through action.

The success of any future support scheme and strategy will be determined by its ability to galvanise industry to deliver, in relation to both climate change mitigation and economic sustainability. We must therefore be clear about potential challenges and suggest ways in which they can be overcome.

The early engagement of industry in adopting a new approach and its potential benefits must be coherent and relatable.

It is important to recognise that terms like "Climate Smart Agriculture" and "Integrated Farm Management" are not widely understood, and significant resource will be required to build awareness of related concepts, aims and benefits.

A supportive advisory network will be a key resource in delivering coherent communications. We must consider if this environment exists or if it is one that must be fostered. In current advisory support structures, we often have single issue/sector portals, an approach that does not always support the principles of an Integrated Farm Management approach.

LEAF (Linking Environment and Farming), an organisation who have led the way in implementation of IFM planning, have demonstrated how peer-to-peer learning and knowledge exchange can be effectively used to deliver tangible and lasting change. We must learn from this experience and adopt its best practice. We must also acknowledge the many successful knowledge transfer initiatives that exist in Scotland, and work together to build a better future