This is according to Green Party leader Eamon Ryan who made the comments in response to the new report published by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Thursday outlining Ireland’s failure to meet its water quality standards.

Speaking on RTÉ Radio 1 on Thursday, Ryan said that farmers taking a more environmentally friendly approach to farming will inevitably lead to them being more profitable in the long run.

“Putting on nitrates costs the farmer money. So if you are really scientific precision farming, this is where smart farmers are going. They are measuring water quality on a daily basis, measuring grass growth on a daily basis. They are increasing biodiversity of grass they grow. This leads to a better product and output and more profitable farming,” Ryan said.

The future of farming

“I think this is the way we should be going in the CAP reform. We want to pay farmers for biodiversity services, for flood management services, for carbon storage. That is the future of farming,” he explained.

Ryan also criticised agriculture as one of the main reasons why water quality standards have not been met.

“Firstly, in farming, it is in the spreading of manure, the application of fertiliser and not being clever about that; this is where we are seeing the main part of the problem,” he said.

High-value nature farming

Ryan also outlined opportunities for farmers in the west to become more profitable through environmental measures.

“I think there is an opportunity there. I think the country is divided in two side in a sense. Look at the west and northwest, where there is better water quality, where 80% of water is either good or pristine compared to the east and south where it is only 40%. Those areas in the west, northwest and southwest have the potential to move to high-nature value farming.

“We need to put a price on biodiversity, encourage farmers on how they manage that land and how we protect biodiversity and pay them for it,” he said.

“That is where there is potential to improve this problem,” he said.

The EPA report

The EPA report released on Thursday reported that Ireland had not met its water quality standards.

The quality of our surface waters has remained relatively static since 2007 to 2009 and improvements, planned for under the first river basin management cycle, have not been achieved, according to the EPA.

The EPA confirmed that nutrient losses from agriculture and domestic wastewater discharges are the primary reasons why the water quality objectives of the WFD will not be met.

The agency has been undertaking an assessment of the effect of human activities on the water environment over the past three years.

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