Alternative Land Use

Allotments

Depending on your location (e.g. transport links to your land, your distance from population centres) and the local demand, converting a portion of farmland to allotments could be a win-win decision for farmers/crofters and the local community. Initially, there is some paperwork with working out tenancy agreements (see the National Allotment Society or the Scottish Allotments and Gardens Society for help in setting things up) and getting planning permission (e.g. hard standings for parking, other on-site facilities). Once you get through this, you could potentially be making much more income from the allotments compared to the previous land-use. This Ecologist article showcases a couple who increased their income from £700 a year on 8 acres of grass for livestock and hay/silage production to approximately £12,000 a year by converting the 8 acres to allotments. Sharing their land with allotment holders also had the benefit that many of them became customers of the farm’s produce too. One key point raised by this article is that the couple encouraged their allotment holders to harvest rainwater in order to keep allotment rental prices lower. But, this would also be important in light of the increasing amount of dry spells and droughts that climate change is expected to cause.

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Native Tree Planting

This year, the Scottish Government have pledged £64 million to forestry and £40 million to the Agricultural Transformation Programme – an initiative implemented specifically to “support farming’s contribution to meeting Scotland’s climate change ambitions”. Tree planting is a key part of this measure.

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Ecosystem Restoration | Rewilding

The Scottish Government is currently piloting systems of support for farmers to restore ecosystems. For inspiration see Scotland The Big Picture.

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Alley Cropping

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Lazy Beds

A lazy bed, otherwise known as a “ridge and furrow”, is a historic arable cultivation method that was especially useful for people living in marginal areas such as uplands and islands where there were thin soils and poor drainage. Lazy beds are created by turning over the soil either side of a strip of land back onto itself, to form a ridge in the centre with two ditches (or furrows) either side of it (Watch this video for an example). Whilst establishing a lazy bed can be labour intensive, creating one helps improve soil drainage, increases the soil depth, and increases the soil temperature within the ridge. Lazy beds are generally associated with growing potatoes but many other crops are suitable. For example, barley, oats, rye, flax, hemp, and turnips were all historically known to be included in lazy bed rotations, although many more crops can be expected to be suitable for this system. There is evidence that adding seaweed to a lazy bed is vital for obtaining high yields, however, for areas where seaweed isn’t readily available, perhaps using green manures in a lazy bed rotation can achieve a similar result. All the information on lazy beds here is sourced from Knox et al.’s (2015) paper “Improved sustainability and ecosystem services from seaweed additions to an old agricultural production
system”.

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‘Leafu’ or Leaf Protein Concentrate Production

Leafu (also called leaf protein concentrate, leaf concentrate, leaf curd, leaf protein, leaf extract) is a nutrient and protein rich food for human consumption. It is made by a process called leaf fractionation. This consists of first reducing lots of young leaf matter to a pulp, pressing the juice from this pulp, then heating the juice to above 90 degrees Celsius, which causes a green curd to form on top that is then skimmed off, strained and used fresh or dried. To get a better understanding of its production process, we recommend watching this video giving an overview of leafu, and this video which covers leafu production at the smallest scale. Read our full article on leafu here to find out how it could play a huge role in Scottish farming and crofting!

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Polycrubs

Invented in Shetland, polycrubs are like a cross between a polytunnel and a planticrub (a circular enclosure made of dry-stone which was historically used to protect crops against the wind). So while it retains the shape and function of a polytunnel, it’s design and it’s stronger components allows it to endure much harsher weather conditions, particularly gale force winds. This makes polycrubs ideal for farmers and crofters located in less favourable microclimates where they may want to extend their growing season or diversify into growing crops for human consumption. The polycrub website features an article on a family living on a Hebridean croft who received a CAGS grant to help establish a polycrub on their land.

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Green Burials

Since 1993, when the first green burial site was opened in the UK, their popularity has increased significantly. Today, there are 360 sites, and demand continues to rise.

One of 20 Scottish green burial sites is Clovery Woods of Rest

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Music Festivals

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Film Shoots

Add your land, home, farm and / or barns to a location library for film shoots. Register with scouts like Locations 365 or Location Scout Scotland.

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Secure Dog Walking