Citizens Assembly on biodiversity hears age profile of farmers is ‘stark’

There are more farmers over the age of 75 than under the age of 35 making change more difficult, members of the Citizens Assembly on biodiversity have heard.

The fourth week of the assembly heard from farmers and farm representatives about the challenges relating to improving biodiversity on Irish farms.

Macra na Feirme representative Shane Fitzgerald told the assembly that the age profile of farmers is “stark” and shows the pressure farmers are under to make a living.

He said farmers need “the two Ms, money and mindset” to have an attitude change to biodiversity. Farmers he knew who were in their sixties and seventies had no interest in biodiversity as they considered it to be a cost with no benefit for themselves.

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“Lately, they have started to come around to it,” he added. An incentive which gave farmers €600 a hectare for letting hedgerow perimeters of fields grow wild is attracting a lot of interest.

IFA environmental chair Paul O’Brien said a third of Irish farmers are in some form of environmental scheme which is two and a half times the EU average.

However, he added that just 30,000 farmers are allowed into the current Agri Climate Rural Environment Scheme (Acres) compared to 70,000 in previous environmental schemes.

“For any policy to work, it requires respect and engagement. Farmers sometimes feel bypassed when it comes to decisions,” he said.

“The proposed EU Nature Restoration Law has raised real concerns amongst farmers. The Government must engage with farmers before adopting their position on this proposal. The property rights of farmers will have to be fully respected.”

Irish farmers were already implementing biodiversity schemes, he stressed. Some 6,500 kilometres of hedgerow has been established, 20,000 acres of wild bird cover sown and 81 per cent of new forestry comes from farmers.

“There is a lot of pent-up demand for a properly funded environmental scheme,” he said. “As farmers we are being asked to do more with less. Since 2006 the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has fallen in real terms by 17 per cent. The ambition should be upped so that every farmer who is part of an environmental programme should be part of it. A fully funded environmental and biodiversity scheme is what we are looking for.”

Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association president Pat McCormack told the assembly that farmers were constantly being told that their industry is “extremely harmful to the environment”.

Yet, farmers have engaged with new technologies. As a result the amount of slurry with low emissions has increased from 5 per cent to 62 per cent. There has been a 20 per cent reduction in artificial fertilisers and a 30 per cent increase in multi-species swards. “We have much we can build on in the years ahead.”

He added that there needed to be a public awareness campaign of the dangers of cheap food and that loss leaders of staples like milk and bread have a cost to the farmer and an environmental cost too.

The Assembly Chair, Dr Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin, and the 99 other members are discussing a wide range of topics including an overview of national policies on biodiversity and agriculture, the management of woodlands and biodiversity, and a specific discussion on peatlands and biodiversity.