Scottish farmer farmers are getting their second and final instalment of convergence funding by the end of January.
Around 18,000 farmers will benefit from the support worth £71.8m.
This comes from the £160m package which the UK government awarded Scotland due to its low average payment per hectare.
The convergence fund will focus payments on hill and upland farmers, who have had their less favoured support payments slashed to 40% of the historic rate.
Rural economy secretary Fergus Ewing has committed to channel the convergence money to bring these payments back up to a 100% rate.
Positive response
NFU Scotland president Andrew McCornick said: “The Scottish government has responded positively to NFU Scotland’s calls to fully make up the shortfall in LFASS payments for all those hit by the EU requirements that LFASS 2020 had to be paid out at 40% of the LFASS 2018 values.
In an effort to fill the breach left by Brexit, the UK government has increased to 30,000 the number of visas it will issue to seasonal agricultural workers. The visas, however, come at a high price, and Romanians and Bulgarians, as well as Estonians, Lithuanians and Slovenians, will pay more for them than other EU citizens.
The UK government has extended a seasonal workers pilot programme, first launched in 2019, for an additional year. It has also expanded the programme, with 30,000 visas set to be made available for those wanting to come and work on UK farms for a period of up to six months in 2021.