19th September 2026
The latest payments highlight just how important agricultural support remains to Scotland's farming industry.
More than £296 million in agricultural support has been paid to Scottish farmers and crofters since the beginning of September.
It is a substantial amount of money, but there is a question that is harder to answer.
“There is an old Scottish joke that a croft is a small piece of land surrounded by legislation. In recent years, a more cynical version has appeared: a piece of land surrounded by grants.” The truth is it is complicated.
How much does the individual farmer or crofter actually receive?
The answer is that there is no standard payment. The amount can range from a relatively small sum for a small croft to tens of thousands of pounds for a larger farm, with some very large agricultural businesses receiving considerably more.
That is because Scottish agricultural support is not one single grant. It is a collection of different payments based on land, farming activity, livestock, environmental measures and the disadvantages of farming in particular areas.
The basic payment
One of the largest elements is the Basic Payment Scheme.
In 2025, the Scottish Government estimated that £274 million was paid through the Basic Payment Scheme, alongside £138 million through Greening. Another £60 million went through the Less Favoured Area Support Scheme, which is particularly relevant to farms operating in upland and remote areas.
There are also payments for livestock, environmental measures and young farmers.
This means that two farms of similar size can receive quite different amounts depending on what they produce and the characteristics of their land.
Land makes a big difference
For a farmer, the amount of eligible land can be one of the most important factors.
The current payment system divides agricultural land into different regions with different payment rates.
That means a farm with 100 hectares does not necessarily receive the same payment as another 100-hectare farm elsewhere in Scotland.
This is particularly relevant in the Highlands and Islands, where much of the agricultural land is less productive and farming conditions can be considerably more difficult.
That is partly why the Less Favoured Area Support Scheme, or LFASS, exists.
It recognises the fact that farming on poorer land, in remote areas or in difficult terrain can have higher costs and lower potential returns.
Then there are livestock payments
There are also payments specifically connected with livestock.
In 2025, the Scottish Government estimated that the Scottish Suckler Beef Support Scheme accounted for around £40 million, while the Scottish Upland Sheep Support Scheme accounted for around £7 million.
For a livestock farmer, these payments can therefore be an important part of the overall income from the business.
A crofter with a relatively small area of land and a modest number of animals will have a very different payment from a large commercial livestock farm.
Environmental payments are another part of the picture
Some support is designed to encourage farmers to manage land in ways that benefit the environment.
The Agri-Environment Climate Scheme paid about £24 million in 2025.
These payments can support measures such as habitat management and other activities intended to reduce environmental impacts or improve biodiversity.
So it would be misleading to describe every pound of agricultural support as simply a payment for producing food.
Some of the money is effectively paying farmers to provide wider public benefits.
How much can a farm receive?
This is where the figures become interesting.
There is no meaningful figure that can be described as the "average farmer's grant".
The Scottish Government's agricultural support statistics cover thousands of recipients with enormously different businesses.
A small croft might receive only a few thousand pounds.
A medium-sized farm could receive tens of thousands.
A large landholding with substantial eligible acreage, livestock and environmental schemes can receive considerably more.
And that is why simply dividing £296 million by the number of farmers would give a rather misleading impression of what an individual farmer receives.
The money is not distributed equally.
Support is important to farming profits
There is nevertheless a very important statistic behind the latest payment announcement.
The Scottish Government's latest Total Income from Farming figures estimate that Scottish farming generated about £1.46 billion of profit in 2025.
Support payments accounted for about 40% of that profit.
Over the ten years from 2016 to 2025, support payments accounted for around 64% of farming profit on average.
That does not mean that farmers made 40% of their income from grants in 2025.
The Scottish Government's measure of Total Income from Farming is a measure of profit after costs, and support payments are included in the calculation.
It does, however, demonstrate how important agricultural support has been to the financial performance of the industry.
And the figures vary enormously between different types of farming.
Without support, would Scottish farming make a loss?
This is another area where the statistics need careful reading.
The Scottish Government estimates that the agricultural sector as a whole remained profitable without support payments in 2025, with income excluding support at around £0.9 billion.
But that is an industry-wide figure.
It does not mean that every individual farm would remain profitable without support.
A highly productive farm in a favourable location may be able to make a reasonable return from selling its output.
A crofter farming difficult land in a remote part of the Highlands may have a very different economic position.
This is one reason why support policy is politically and economically complicated.
Caithness and the Highlands
For Caithness, Sutherland and other Highland areas, the issue has particular significance.
Large areas of the region are suited mainly to livestock and sheep farming rather than intensive arable production.
Distance from markets, weather, poorer soils and the cost of transporting animals, feed and other inputs can all affect the economics.
Support schemes therefore play an important role in keeping agricultural businesses operating in areas where commercial returns can be relatively low.
But there is another side to the argument.
Taxpayers are providing hundreds of millions of pounds of support every year, so there is a legitimate public interest in understanding where the money goes and what society receives in return.
That might include food production, maintaining rural communities, managing the landscape, protecting biodiversity and keeping land in agricultural use.
The bigger question
The latest £296 million payment announcement therefore tells only part of the story.
The more interesting question is not simply:
"How much money are farmers getting?"
It is: "What are taxpayers getting in return for that money?"
Scotland's farming industry is an important part of the rural economy, and many farms operate in difficult circumstances.
At the same time, public support is a significant part of the economics of Scottish agriculture.
The latest figures show that support payments have averaged around 64% of farming profit over the past decade, although the proportion fell to 40% in 2025 as farming profits increased sharply.
That makes the debate about agricultural support much more complicated than either "farmers are being subsidised" or "farmers cannot survive without grants".
The reality is that Scotland has chosen to support farming financially, particularly in areas where the market alone may not provide enough income to maintain the agricultural businesses and rural communities that the country wants to retain.
The next question is whether the present system is delivering the right balance between supporting farmers, producing food, protecting the environment and providing value for the taxpayer.