Chamber and committees

Convener, would it be okay if I asked the cabinet secretary to give detail about the £62 million to replace the funding from the European maritime and fisheries fund? Cabinet secretary, I presume that you are using the amount of money that you should have got from the EMF in your calculations. However, as we know, after we left the European Union, that funding increased, and it was the increased amount, rather than what we received before, that was used in the calculations. It would be really useful for the committee to receive the calculations that you used to come to that figure.

Cabinet secretary, is the Scottish Government concerned that there will be a lack of investment in the industry because of that scheme’s withdrawal? Have you made an assessment of the impact that that will have on the farming, food processing and supply chain sectors? Everybody wants to talk about that, because we want to improve supply chains rather than withdraw investment from them. What is your assessment?

Okay.

My first question, quite simply, is this: why has the agricultural transformation fund been reduced from £45 million to £5 million?

Why is that not shown in the budget? Why continue with the agricultural transformation fund if you are rolling that into those other schemes? I do not understand your explanation. Are you saying that one has been replaced by another?

Great.

I would like to ask the cabinet secretary and her officials to come back on the issue of slurry storage, because, as we know, the AECS funding that you talked about has also been cut. Only 2 per cent of that is allocated to slurry storage. We know that farmers have to meet the water regulations and have only four years to transition. In one of those years, you could not make an application for slurry storage. Can the committee have figures for the criteria for future AECS funding? Will it be realistic for farmers, from Orkney to the Borders, to be able to apply for that funding? Will that funding for slurry storage be a higher percentage of the AECS funding?

Thank you.

Convener, may I ask a question about the food processing, marketing and co-operation grant scheme?

In your role, you have discretion to apply for wider funding as part of the block grant. I realise that some funding is ring fenced, but that is for broad agricultural support, and you have discretion to make those choices. Given the record block grant, do you have the ability to make your case for Scotland’s agricultural sector?