The agriculture sector in Ireland has positioned itself as a global leader in terms of innovation and production, according to a senior director from the World Bank in Washington DC.

Providing the keynote speech at the Agricultural Science Association (ASA) annual conference today, Dr Juergen Voegele warned that while Ireland is at the vanguard of agriculture production at a global stage, there are potential risks to maintaining this growth.

Dr Voegele said: “You are ahead of the curve globally - your farmers and your companies work together. You are country with a vision for the agriculture sector but you don’t stop there. You have an operational way of getting the results that you want. This is done jointly by the public sector, the private sector and education. It is most impressive.”

Sustainability

While the agriculture specialist at the World Bank lauded the vision and capabilities of farming here, Dr Voegele issued a stern warning on the systems that are in place to deal with volatility and sustainability, in Ireland and on the global stage.

“If agriculture production stopped tomorrow, there is just 10 weeks of supply of food for people on the planet ... We need to address this at global level,” Dr Voegele said.

“We have had innovation in most other sectors. We have had wind turbines, solar panels and electric cars, and all of these have come in the last 20 years. What has the agriculture sector done? Do we have [an] electric car equivalent in farming? No,” he added.

In terms of being fully sustainable, Dr Voegele said: “We are very, very far away from that ... Agriculture, in aggregate, is the largest greenhouse gas emitter in the world. Between 20% and 30% of global greenhouse gases is produced from agriculture. Agriculture is hit by climate change or changing weather patterns more than any other sector but it is the biggest contributor. That needs to change,” Dr Voegele concluded.