The use of top-quality tillage ground for solar farms needs to be discussed and debated at national level, the Irish Grain Growers Group (IGG) has maintained.

While IGG chair Bobby Miller stressed that farmers were not against the development of solar farms, he said the implications of arable land moving out of crop production indefinitely should be a cause of real concern. “The Irish Grain Growers Group is not against solar farms, and landowners have the right to do what they want with their own land,” Miller said.

“But it doesn’t make much sense to put solar farms on good tillage ground and then import the grain,” he said.

Miller pointed out that developments within solar farms are effectively banned in Britain on all lands graded from 1 (best quality) to 3a (good-quality agricultural land with moderate limitations).

“We have asked the minister to have a look at the situation. We can’t hope to increase the area of tillage if we’re losing land to solar farms and dairying,” Miller pointed out.

Tillage farmers in north Co Dublin maintained that close to 3,000ac of ground that was traditionally used for sowing potatoes, vegetables and grain has been lost to solar farms over the last few years.

Potato farmers

Similar concerns have been voiced by grain growers and potato farmers in the southeast, where there has been a steady flow of land being taken for solar farms.

With solar farms potentially taking up to 25,000ac in the coming years under the Renewable Electricity Supply Scheme, the IGG said the location of these farms was critical.

A recent Irish Farmers Journal survey found that almost half the tillage farmers who responded expected to lose rented land when their leases expired.