The Franz Fischler-inspired Forum for the Future of Agriculture in Brussels has become one of the largest agricultural get-togethers in the world. This year there were over 2,000 attending. It has developed into a two-day affair with the first day devoted mostly to science and technology and the second mostly policy. The main sponsors and organisers are chemical company Syngenta and the European Landowners Organisation.

The main day began with a video message from the pope; his empathy with farmers and farming was very evident. In an increasingly secular Ireland, such a start would have surprised many, but in Brussels it was warmly received.

While our minds were lifted by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan’s address, I suspect most of the farmers present were more interested in listening to Commissioner for Agriculture Phil Hogan as he was quizzed on his plans for the review of the CAP. Brexit was hardly mentioned but a report on the CAP from European think tank the RISE Foundation bore a strong British imprint in calling for the phasing out of Pillar I payments – the core support to commodity prices payable to EU farmers.

In an extraordinary statement for a European agricultural policy document, it claimed that “the ability to import through a liberal trade regime can be described as the most resilient policy towards food security”.

The characterisation of the CAP as a failure was strongly and effectively rebutted by Commissioner Hogan, who pointed out some of the realities of the development of food production and environmental enhancement in European farming. However, he gave little away in terms of what changes he intended to propose in his review. He could probably do little else given that he has launched a major consultation policy which does not finish until early May.

But there were real technical nuggets. Among them were the New Zealand minister for agriculture and racing admitting they faced a real challenge with 50% of their greenhouse gasses coming from agriculture. But he was confident that with a combination of more forestry and research they would be able to meet their Paris climate change commitments. If they do, it should give the Irish negotiators and researchers some optimism.

The other area was the whole potential of precision and minimum tillage as well as the rapid progress in genetic manipulation to reduce inputs.