Farm leaders have welcomed commitment from the Scottish government that it is to proceed with plans to bring forward crofting reforms.
In its statement in Holyrood, the Scottish government confirmed that the Crofting Bill will support the sustainability of crofting.
Crofting regulation will also be made less onerous for crofters, and they will be encouraged to innovate, diversify and adapt to help meet future challenges.
This follows on from the Scottish government’s recent consultation on proposals for crofting law reform.
The consultation sought views on proposals regarding entry to crofting, crofting communities, use of common grazings and strengthening residency and land use.
There are around 20,000 crofts across the crofting counties, which are located in the Highlands and Islands and in designated areas in Scotland.
More than 750,000 hectares of land in Scotland is in crofting tenure, with approximately 33,000 people living in crofting households.
NFU Scotland said it 'broadly supports' reform, but also used its submission to the consultation to call for the legislation to go further to assist entry to crofting for new entrants.
Archie Macnab, chair of NFU Scotland’s Crofting Committee, which represents 850 crofters, said the future of crofting must be successful and profitable.
“It is in the best interests of everyone that crofting law is future-proofed, modernised and becomes more flexible to ensure crofting businesses are sustainable and play a full part in the local economy," he said.
"Crofting law must enable crofting to move with the times and any changes that can speed up the Crofting Commission’s processes would be welcome.
“Greater flexibility in crofting law would recognise that ‘one size fits all’ may not always be appropriate and we have made suggestions around regionalisation of some proposals to ensure all aspects of crofting are catered for."
However, he said the sector was disappointed that the proposals did not go far enough to help address entry to crofting for new entrants other than the proposed access to funds to purchase a tenancy.
"That, in itself, may exacerbate the worryingly high values already being paid for croft tenancies," Mr Macnab said.
“Some of the welcomed elements of the proposals do provide opportunity for crofters to benefit from their common grazings, particularly the proposed changes that would permit shareholders to make use of the common grazings for purposes other than solely for livestock grazing.”
