Teagasc needs to step up the uptake of its research, particularly on beef and sheep farms, according to a report from the Department of Agriculture’s economics division.

A spending review of Teagasc’s livestock-orientated research under the Animal and Grassland Research and Innovation Programme (AGRIP) was carried out in late 2020.

It found that while Teagasc research has identified new technologies and farming methods that can improve the productivity of Irish farms, particularly around grassland and breeding, there is uneven uptake both across the sectors and within each sector.

Figures from the Teagasc National Farm Survey (NFS) Sustainability report show that more profitable farmers are more likely to adopt new innovative technologies.

Dairy has been “consistently outperforming beef and sheep enterprises in terms of income,” the authors said, leaving it a challenge to encourage less profitable farmers to engage with research.

It noted that while AGRIP projects had contributed to improving the environmental performance of Irish agriculture in terms of unit efficiency, these needed to be considered in the context of overall emissions.

Challenge

“The key challenge is to continue to develop innovations and methodologies that improve the environmental efficiency of units produced, while simultaneously ensuring that overall emissions do not increase,” it said.

The final recommendation was that Teagasc continues to liase with the Department to ensure research goals were aligned to policy, “particularly for the next agri-food strategy currently being developed.”

AGRIP comprises six departments – dairy knowledge transfer, drystock knowledge transfer, grassland science, livestock systems, animal bioscience and pig development. Over 325 staff are employed in the programme. It receives the highest percentage of Teagasc funding dedicated to research at 35%, followed by Teagasc’s food programme (27%), crops and land use (23%) and rural development (9%).

Its annual budget has increased from €22.6m in 2013 to €25.7m in 2019. The majority of the funding comes from the exchequer, ranging between 57% and 66% over the last seven years. The remainder is raised through externally funded research or through income earned.

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