Persistent claims that farmers have a cavalier attitude towards fertiliser use are highly inaccurate, writes Pádraig Walshe
I must take issue with Tuesday's editorial and yesterday's comments by Mary Raftery which are the latest ill-informed, inaccurate and misleading editorial opinions on nitrates in The Irish Times.
This persistent onslaught on farmers is at variance with the otherwise highly-informed and excellent coverage of farming issues and rural affairs generally in The Irish Times.
Farmers and their families have a central interest in protecting our rural environment, including the water quality we ourselves depend on for our families and our livestock.
The difficulty we have with the Government's nitrates regulations is that they go far beyond what is required to protect our water resources and, in doing so, will seriously damage Irish agriculture and farmers' livelihoods. I make no apology for pointing out these facts.
It is clear that agriculture is by far the most prevalent land use in the country. All human activity impacts on the environment. However, compared to the other main land uses - urban, industrial and commercial - I am convinced that good farming is by far the most benign use of land.
Over 90 per cent of Irish farming is extensive livestock production from grass based on permanent pasture, which is widely acknowledged as being highly effective in capturing nutrients.
We have 140,000 farm holdings, with an average size of almost 30 hectares. Around 270,000 people work either on a full-time or part-time capacity in farming.
Farmers take their responsibilities for water quality seriously. However, The Irish Times persists in portraying Irish water quality as poor and declining, and goes on to attribute the primary cause to agriculture.
Furthermore, farmers are being characterised as having a cavalier attitude towards fertiliser use, damaging the environment and water quality.
These views are highly inaccurate and seriously damaging to the farming sector.
We have high-quality water in Ireland which compares very favourably with other EU states.
There is no evidence that rivers flowing through farmland, farmed in accordance with good farming practice, are subject to any pollution from the land.
Fertiliser usage by farmers has fallen dramatically. Phosphorus use peaked in 1973 when over 90,000 tonnes of phosphorus fertiliser were used. This has fallen by over 50 per cent in the last 30 years. Nitrogen use has also fallen.
It is not correct to state that "almost half of Irish soils are completely saturated in phosphorus".
Irish soils are evenly distributed over four soil P indices, with about 20 per cent of soils in the index four category. Teagasc is recommending a target P index of three for agricultural production; 50 per cent of Irish soils are below this level.
Nitrate concentrations in surface waters are well within the mandatory limits set for abstraction and drinking waters, and the positive trend which became evident in the mid-1990s is continuing. This is in the absence of the excessive regulation which is now being foisted on farmers.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has described the levels of nitrates in water supplies - both public and group schemes - as generally low, with the majority of supplies complying with the drinking water standards.
As recently as last December the EPA reported that there were continuing improvements in the quality of Ireland's drinking water, with an overall compliance rate of 96.4 per cent. This is up from 96.1 per cent in 2003 in relation to all prescribed standards.
While there are a number of factors impacting on water quality, the EPA has identified problems in the management of waste-water treatment plants by local authorities and non-compliance with EU requirements on waste water, again by local authorities.
Given the damage the nitrates regulations would do to our best farmers, it is ironic to read recent reports from the World Economic Forum where Ireland has been ranked 10th out of 133 countries for environmental health, mainly because of our excellent quality water. Ireland achieved top place on water quality in Europe together with Norway and Switzerland.
It is widely accepted within agriculture by farmers and scientists that the nitrates regulations adopted by the Government last December were unnecessarily restrictive to protect water quality, and particularly damaging to farming. I welcome the scientific review of the phosphorus and nitrogen provisions in the regulations.
A sub-committee of Teagasc is examining a number of substantive issues in the review which remain to be resolved.
Our concern is that Ireland's natural advantage in grass-based livestock farming, which is the basis of our dairy and beef production, is not undermined through excessive regulation without establishing any benefit to water quality.
My decision to suspend IFA's participation in the partnership negotiations was not taken lightly.
But, notwithstanding my belief in partnership, the current nitrates regulations present such a fundamental threat to the future of Irish agriculture that IFA had no choice but to withdraw until we have a satisfactory outcome which maintains Ireland's high-quality water without undermining Irish farming with unnecessary regulation.
Pádraig Walshe is president of the Irish Farmers Association