Sir, – The issue for Government and farmers is what now to deliver the 25 per cent reduction target for 2030. Time is ticking away.
I attended the Teagasc open day in Johnstown Castle on addressing climate change in agriculture last week.
I heard many presentations on measures to reduce emissions, some a long time around, such as greater use of clover and deep-rooted edible plants in grassland and better manure management, some more recent, such as improved productivity, protected urea fertiliser and agroforestry, and some at the research stage, such as seaweed additives and the production of low-methane producing dairy cows.
To make very significant inroads into the 25 per cent reduction target, we need to apply all available proven measures on all farms now and especially on dairy farms which have been in full expansion since the ending of milk quotas in 2014. Together, they will not achieve the 25 per cent target but applied on every farm they would contribute more than half. That’s a serious start.
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Should these measures be compulsory or voluntary and who should pay for them? Providing adequate manure storage was an important aspect of the implementation of the nitrates directive in 2006. A four-year grace period was agreed to complete this task and farmers overwhelmingly responded positively with beneficial results for water quality (which benefits are now largely dissipated in the rush to expand cow numbers). The carrot of support now and obligation thereafter worked. The same approach should be taken now so that by the end of 2026, a new standard of farming is required. That could easily be incorporated into both the common agricultural policy through cross-compliance and into contracts for the sale of farm produce off the farm. The task of achieving the new standards will be high on some farms but for others rather less as they are long on the road to environmental sustainability. The financial burden to achieve the new standard should be borne not just by farmers and the State but also by the dairy companies which have benefitted from the expansion in milk production since 2014.
A review in 2026 of progress, or lack thereof, would allow the then government to make an informed judgment as to whether a new quota system should be introduced. In that review, progress in research should also be taken into account, as well as in afforestation and soil and peatland carbon sequestration and the ownership thereof.
Every day that slips by makes tougher measures to reduce agricultural emissions more inevitable.
Quotas are a blunt instrument and complex in their operation but without major progress now they may become inevitable and severe. – Yours, etc,
MICHAEL HAMELL,
(Former chairman,
European Commission
nitrates committee),
Dublin 9.