Quietly and with little fuss, a whole new group of people with exposure to international farming and agricultural policy has been arriving on the Irish agriculture scene.

The Irish Farmers Journal first introduced the concept of the Nuffield scholarships to Ireland in 1996, and Ireland was later admitted as a full member of the organisation at a special general meeting in Canada.

During those early years, John Grogan, the Company Secretary of the Irish Farmers Journal acted as secretary and organiser of the small body of scholarship winners.

Among the very early award winners was Padraig Walshe who went on to become president of the IFA and of the EU farm umbrella organisation COPA, and Jim McCarthy, who has had the most extraordinary farming career and is now operating on a large scale in Romania.

These two individuals capture the aim of Nuffield in completely different ways: “to develop leaders who will shape the future of Irish agriculture and local, national and global communities.”

Since then, the organisation has grown hugely and is now a standalone thriving vibrant body of people with wide experience and ambition.

Annual conference

Last week, they held their annual conference, where a huge crowd was exposed to detailed analysis on topics as varied as the reasons behind the particular failures of Irish forestry policy, the prospects for a co-operative sheep milk industry, and the future of the Irish egg industry.

There were also penetrating points on the contradictions of some of the policies to prevent carbon loss in tillage farming, as well as the changes that can be made at farm level to improve water quality.

Talent

With such a valuable reservoir of talent, hands-on experience and enthusiasm, you would have to ask if official Ireland was making maximum use of the knowledge available within such a group.

It was heartening to see Tom Arnold the chairman of the ministerial Food Wise report sitting quietly in the back, given his important food systems roles at EU and UN levels.

It is important from his own point of view that he continues to develop the most informed view possible based on real experiences from real people.

The key question is whether such a pool of talent and knowledge should have some more formal consultative role in the development of Irish agricultural policy.