Government energy and environment policies are squeezing food production, industry exports warned over the weekend, putting a €14 billion export business under pressure.
The Agricultural Science Association (ASA) says the introduction of “multiple land-use policies” is creating huge uncertainty and ultimately threatens a decline in the rural economy.
The Republic faces “the potential loss of between 750,000 and one million hectares of food production farmland in the next 20 to 25 years due to an array of new directives and policies requiring more land for various purposes”, said the association, which is the professional body for graduates in agricultural, horticultural, forestry, environmental and food science.
This leaves the future of food production in the Republic facing significant uncertainty and endangers its €14.5 billion in exports from the industry, it adds.
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Recent decisions likely to squeeze land use include new rules that will require farmers to reduce the use of nitrates, cutting the land’s productivity and, as a result, forcing farmers either to cut the size of their cattle herds or allocate extra land to support them.
Anaerobic digestion targets, part of the Government’s plan to boost biogas production, could separately require up to 300,000 hectares, according to the association. The Government also needs to plant trees on an extra 440,000 hectares to meet its forestry targets.
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Solar farms, to which farmers are increasingly turning to earn cash, could take up 40,000 hectares, said the association while expanding organic farming, which the association concedes is beneficial, will also cut food production. Rewetting projects, it said, will require access to some land that is now privately held.
ASA president Niamh Bambrick said one of the issues is that farmers cannot make long-term plans as the Government keeps shifting the goalposts.
“We need a cohesive strategy that balances environmental goals with the need to sustain our food production capacity and a strategy that is based on scientific findings, not popular opinions or what gains votes in the next general election,” she said.
The Department of Agriculture said Government policy consistently identified a need to maintain food production while maintaining socially, economically and sustainable food and farming industries.
These policies provide a variety of options for farmers that are “entirely voluntary”, the department added.
The State needs to align land-use policies with food production goals, said Ms Bambrick, while ensuring that it maintained farming’s sustainability and the State’s status as a leading food exporter. These are issues the association intends to highlight at a conference in Kilkenny’s Lyrath Hotel in September.
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