More than 300 agricultural advisers and scientists from 17 countries across Europe, Africa and North America are meeting in the University of Limerick to share information on developments in areas such as arable farming, beef, milk, organics, energy and forestry.
The Teagasc-hosted international conference on Innovation Support for a Diverse Agriculture (http://goo.gl/As6ok1), which runs through Wednesday, is supported by Dairymaster and Fáilte Ireland. It incorporates the annual events of Europe's two key agricultural advisory bodies: IALB and EUFRAS (European Forum for Rural and Agricultural Advisory Services).
Tom Kelly, Teagasc's director of knowledge transfer and the current chair of EUFRAS chair, explains the organisations' shared history.
"IALB was founded 55 years ago and mainly represents advisors in German-speaking nations, including Switzerland, Austria and Germany, as well as Poland, " he says. "Ireland would have normally sent representatives to their conferences. In 2013, it was decided that advisers throughout Europe should work more closely together, and EUFRAS was founded as a result.
“In a way, IALB could be described as the mother organisation of EUFRAS.”
This week’s event is therefore the 55th IALB and the third EUFRAS annual conference.
“The conference comes at a time when the role of rural advisers in innovation support is becoming much more valued and appreciated, both globally and at European level,” says Kelly. “It is a great opportunity to share ideas, discuss issues and make valuable contacts. It’s open to all, and will be most relevant to agricultural advisers and those involved in supporting the development of agriculture.”
As well, "It is also a fantastic opportunity for Ireland to showcase the supports provided to Irish farmers through Teagasc, private consultants and the industry," Kelly says. "Many advisers in other regions throughout Europe want to learn from us."
The conference will focus on crucial issues, among them the European Innovation Partnership; the context and changing roles of advisers and consultants; rural development challenges; perspectives on the recent Teagasc Technology Foresight Report.
There is also an open exhibit and networking event that highlights the new tools, services and research relevant to advisers.
Excursions to farms, technology and agri-food companies and colleges will give delegates the chance to see real examples of how Irish agriculture, in different sectors, is responding to the opportunities and challenges facing it. Workshop sessions will give delegates an opportunity to interact with each other and share experiences around major topics.
Ireland was asked to host this year’s conference as a result of its contribution to the most recent events in 2014 and 2015.
A high priority
“The organisations were very impressed by what we have in terms of the strength of the advisory services here,” says Kelly. “One of the things that impresses them most about Ireland is that agriculture is a much higher priority for Government here because of its huge value to exports and the economy.”
Ireland also has a particular contribution to make, owing to the structure of its agricultural sector.
“Agriculture here is based on the family farm,” Kelly says. “When you look at eastern Europe, the legacy of collectivisation persists and you still have huge farms which are owned by multinational and private equity concerns. But then when you go to the former Yugoslavia, you find that in some areas there are no small farms at all and, in others, eight hectares would be a big holding.
“Ireland has a lot to offer in terms of those smaller farms with our history of the Land Commission and so on.”
One of the main benefits of this sort of conference is the opportunities it offers for delegates from different countries to learn from each other.
“There are a lot of parallels between sectors even when you don’t think there are similarities,” Kelly says. “For example, while German dairy herds might be indoors for most of the year, German farmers have six or seven years’ experience of robotic milking and we are really only starting out on that here.”
European advisers can also learn from Teagasc’s pioneering work on the establishment of farm discussion groups.
“We have led the change from a one-to-one advisory service to a group approach. In the past, advisers called in to a farm and gave specific advice. It is now accepted that we can give a much better service by establishing groups of farmers who meet seven or eight times a year on each other’s farms to discuss shared problems and learn from each other.
“If two farmers are sharing information and experiences – that’s good. If 10 or 15 of them are doing it, that’s even better.”
Farm data
This group approach has allowed for the introduction of benchmarking, Kelly says.
“We have made huge strides with that over the past 10 years. In the past, we were getting data from research and feeding it into farms. Now we are getting data from the farms themselves and using that to benchmark their performance. We are able to tell a farmer three things they need to do to improve performance, not 20. That makes things a lot simpler and makes the advisory service a lot more effective.”
Barry Caslin, a Teagasc bioenergy specialist, says the meeting offers an excellent opportunity to bridge the gap between science and farm practice.
“When you think about innovation in agriculture, we can learn a lot from other European countries,” he says. “For example, the European Innovation Partnership allows for the setting up of groups within the EU to deal with specific issues, such as sustainable agriculture. It’s an innovation model based on partnerships, which takes a bottom-up approach and will allow us to deal with problems such as ash die-back, for example.
“The conference offers an opportunity for people to meet, identify problems and begin the process of establishing innovation partnerships to deal with them.”
According to Kelly, innovation need not always be something brand new, or have to have some sort of business dimension.
“People often confuse innovation with entrepreneurship,” he says. “Innovation is anything that is new to the people using it. Something that has been around for five years in one country is an innovation to the country where it is just being introduced.
“The conference allows delegates to look at the best practice in other countries and see what’s most appropriate for farmers in their home country.”