The Tenant Farmers Association Scotland (STFA) has called for more equality for tenant farmers in the government’s renewable technologies strategy. The association called on the Secretary for Rural Affairs, Richard Lochhead, to ensure that tenant farmers are given the same opportunities to participate in the renewable energy revolution as other farmers.

Responding to an announcement made by Mr Lochhead at the Black Isle Show last week, the STFA welcomed the Rural Affairs Secretary‘s promise to develop an “Agri-Renewable Strategy.” The Association said it welcomed Mr Lochhead’s vision of a strategy that would “ensure that land managers can benefit from the renewables revolution and unlock the green energy potential of their land,” however, Angus McCall, chair of the STFA, said, “Tenant farmers face different challenges over and above the planning process, and I am disappointed that the Cabinet Secretary has not sought to identify these in his announcement.”

Mr McCall continued, “The government’s move to bring some order to what has become an increasingly cumbersome and complex planning process is most welcome. There is tremendous potential for the agricultural industry to take advantage of the varied opportunities created by the government’s renewables target and tenant farmers along with other land managers are ready to play their part.”

The Association outlined the additional challenges its members face in developing renewable energies on the land they work. The STFA said tenant farmers should be given compensation for the “inconvenience and disruption” caused by wind turbines installed on tenanted land.  Angus McCall said farmers were “already facing demands from landlords to resume land on which to establish wind farms and they have little defence beyond the planning process.”

He also called for more clarity over whether, should a tenant choose to develop renewable projects on their tenanted holdings, this should be treated as a tenant’s improvement to the farm or as a diversification. Mr McCall said, “Legal advice is not clear-cut and we will be pressing the government and landowners’ organisations to develop guidance so that tenants do not find themselves tied up in legal wrangles as well as having to battle through the morass of red tape that represents the planning process.”

The STFA pointed out that a third of Scotland’s land is tenanted and asserted, “tenants can make a tremendous contribution towards meeting government targets, but they must be free to operate under the same set of rules as other farmers” in order to benefit from the renewable revolution.