The president of the National Farmers' Union (NFU) Scotland has called on policy makers to “take their head out of the sand”, listen hard and deliver viable support for the industry, which he argued has a critical role to play in the nation's green recovery.
Delivering his first address to NFU Scotland’s annual conference since being elected last February, Martin Kennedy made it clear that Scotland’s agricultural sector has never been under so much pressure.
Scotland’s farmers, crofters and producers are facing escalating input costs, labour shortages, climate change, imbalanced supply chains, unscrutinised trade deals, and continued uncertainty around future policy and support.
