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The Scottish rural affairs minister has said UK governments of both parties did not understand the needs of Scotland's rural communities.
Speaking at the SNP spring conference in Aviemore, Richard Lochhead said the "Westminster parties talk a good talk at election time but ignore rural Scotland when in office".
He claimed that the devolved government has "delivered" and more MPs should be sent to London "to push our case".
Lochhead said Scotland gets the lowest share of European rural development funding of any country and gets six times less funding than Ireland.
"Put simply, the Union is costing Scotland," he told conference.
"So our farmers are being sold out by Westminster, our fishermen been told that they are expendable and our rural communities get the worst deal in Europe.
"Yet, we have the resources to feed the nation when the world is facing food shortages, and to power our economy when other nations are running out of energy resources.
"Often all that stands in our way is our nation's lack of influence over the vital decisions that have to be taken to grasp the opportunities.
"That's why we need all these important decisions taken in Scotland and until we have that power, that's why we need champions in Westminster.
"This is a vital election coming up. It is critical that we send a strong SNP Group to Westminster to deliver for Scotland.
"Delegates our environment needs champions, rural Scotland needs champions and Scotland needs champions."
Lochhead told conference the Edinburgh government is to launch a new toolkit for our cafes, hotels, restaurants and pubs "which all have a key role in building Scotland's reputation as a land of food and drink".
He said he will be meeting the EU fisheries commisssioner next week and will ask her to end "the madness of the one-size fits all fishing policy and we must stop the madness of regulations forcing the dumping of good quality fish back dead into the sea".
Dods Parliamentary Communications Ltd