The Scottish Executive's grant aid for farmers to establish short-rotation coppice willow or poplar as an energy crop is to be brought into line with the equivalent grant in England, subject to approval by the European Commission, Forestry Minister Rhona Brankin announced today.
Currently the grant aid available from the Scottish Forestry Grants Scheme (SFGS) is £600 a hectare, in addition to which applicants can seek standard SFGS grants to help with the costs of necessary work, such as ground preparation and fencing.
If approved by the European Union, the new grant will pay an all-inclusive, flat rate of £1000 a hectare. The new grant will be paid only to farmers who have a supply contract with an end user, such as a power-generating company.
Ms Brankin said,
"We believe this is a sensible move to ensure that interested farmers in Scotland enjoy a level playing field with their counterparts in England, but that it is wise to pay the grant only to farmers with a supply contract with an end user. This will help to ensure that we do not use public money to stimulate the supply of a crop that two or three years down the line might have no market.
"There is increasing interest in Scotland in using biomass (plant fibre) as a fuel for generating heat and power, not only as a means of developing a new market for our increasing forestry production, but also as a means of reducing our nett emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide.
"Short-rotation coppice crops have a role to play in this, but we believe the emphasis in Scotland will continue to be on developing the use of forest and sawmill by-products such as branches, tree tops and the unusable parts of logs."
If approved by the European Commission, the new grant will be open for applications from 1st October 2005. Further information is available from the Commission's Conservancy offices in Dingwall, Huntly, Perth, Hamilton, Dumfries and Galashiels, or from the Commission's website, www.forestry.gov.uk/scotland
