Ireland will focus its strategic agricultural policy in the coming ten years mainly on increasing farmers' incomes and improving the viability of small farming households. The new Irish strategy takes into account that the number of full-time farmers is likely to continue declining over the next decade.
The new Irish Agri-Food strategy will be published next week, but the Irish agricultural newspaper Agriland has already reviewed it. The plan is not presented as a ready-made legislative proposal, but as a âdirection setterâ released for consultation and feedback.
In the strategy document â the successor to Food Wise 2025 â more attention will be given to non-agricultural incomes for Irish farmers. It is acknowledged that farmers should receive higher prices for their products, which is âsupported by evidenceâ. However, the strategy document states that the pricing issue is âcomplex and not susceptible to easy solutions.â
The centre-left Irish coalition government, which took office last year, advocates â similar to the United States and the EU â the development of carbon farming and the scaling up of renewable energy sources, particularly anaerobic digestion and solar energy.
Although grass-based production of milk, beef, and sheep will remain the dominant part of agri-food production, there is also advocacy for expansion of tillage, horticulture, and organic farming. Environmental sustainability is expected to become an even larger component of this agri-food strategy than the current one.
Since last year, Ireland has had a coalition of two conservative and liberal centre parties (Fianna FĂĄil and Fine Gael) together with the Greens, which left the left-wing nationalist Sinn FĂ©in out of the coalition. The policy program will focus heavily on climate change in the coming years. Restoring the economy will go hand in hand with investments in green infrastructure. Within Fianna FĂĄil, the party of small farmers, there was initially resistance to the coalition agreement.
An earlier official note from the Irish Department of Agriculture advocated earlier this year that Ireland must reduce its livestock herd to lower methane emissions to meet international climate commitments. The newly appointed Minister of Agriculture dismissed that advice and has now presented a still non-binding direction for the new Irish agricultural policy.
The number of cattle held on Irish farms last year was 7,314,400, an increase of 105,800 compared to 2019. However, Minister of Agriculture Charlie McConalogue refuses to reduce the national herd. He believes that the economic and financial value of Irish beef and dairy exports must be preserved.
McConalogue has been the third Minister of Agriculture since last year. Recently he advocated for a âtransformation program to maintain the family model for Irish farms.â McConalogue succeeded Dara Calleary, who had to resign just a few weeks after his appointment because he participated in a large party dinner despite COVID-19 restrictions. The new minister comes from a farming family and also worked for several years on the farm. Previously, he served as agriculture spokesperson for the governing party Fianna FĂĄil.