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Foreword
The Scottish Government has a clear and ambitious agenda for Scottish agriculture in the 21st century. Scotland needs a dynamic and competitive industry, ensuring the long-term viability of our rural communities and enabling farmers and crofters to play their full part in achieving our overarching purpose of sustainable economic growth, through food production and environmental management of agricultural land. Agriculture also brings substantial social benefits to our rural and more remote communities.
Less Favoured Areas ( LFAs) comprise 85% of our agricultural land and the Less Favoured Area Support Scheme ( LFASS) is designed to sustain active farming and crofting in these areas. This is important to maintain and improve their high environmental value. It is also important for the vitality of local communities and for food production, with our livestock finishing and processing industry depending heavily on animals from LFAs.
Land management in our LFAs faces particularly difficult physical and climatic conditions and, to compensate for these natural challenges, LFASS provides £61 million each year to over 12,500 farmers and crofters through the Scotland Rural Development Programme ( SRDP).
When we submitted the SRDP to Brussels in summer 2007, we were expecting changes in the European regulations on LFASS, to take effect from 1 January 2010. Accordingly, we sought (and gained) approval for an interim LFASS to run during 2007, 2008 and 2009. As explained in the consultation paper, it is no longer clear that the new European regulations for LFASS will come into effect on 1 January 2010. However, stakeholders represented on our LFASS Stakeholder Group have said that they would, nevertheless, like us to review the interim scheme and to make any necessary changes for the years 2010-13. The Scottish Government supports the industry's case. We are therefore consulting on options for a second interim scheme for 2010-13, as well as seeking views on how we should respond to possible future changes in the relevant European legislation.
This consultation is also taking place against the background of the European Commission's Health Check of the Common Agricultural Policy, about which we published a separate consultation paper in June of this year.
The recent loss of livestock from our hills is a matter of serious and growing concern to the Scottish Government. A decline in activity threatens the viability of communities and impacts on food production and our environment.
It is vital that we work in partnership with the industry and rural Scotland to effectively respond to the challenges, so as to help retain active populations on our hills and in our more remote communities that contribute to the nation's future.
I look forward to hearing your views about the part LFASS can play in helping to sustain farming and crofting, and associated livestock activity, in our LFAs. 
RICHARD LOCHHEAD MSP
Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Environment
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