“It is a range of delivery,” asserts Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue in relation to the just-announced sectoral target for farming.

“The key objective has been to be ambitious, and to push to adopt measures that will reduce our carbon emissions as much as we possibly can, but that will still enable us to maintain and enhance the value of Irish farming and food production. There was a lot of speculation that agriculture would get a 51% reduction target, but I’ve been engaged in discussions for many months to ensure that our sector got a target that is deliverable.

For this reason, I expect that farmer incomes will increase in the years ahead

“By being as carbon efficient as we can, particularly given the heightened awareness of consumers, we increase the marketability as well as the sustainability of our food. Consumers are going to increasingly look at the footprint of the food they buy.

“For this reason, I expect that farmer incomes will increase in the years ahead. The starting point of Irish agriculture is that we are one of the most sustainable food production models in the world. The Food Vision 2030 strategy supports that, and now the Climate Action Plan supports Food Vision 2030.

Not everything is known right now in terms of what we can do

“Many of the measures can be cost-reducing. The KPMG report showed that we can currently have a pathway to reducing emissions by 18% while increasing incomes. A lot of the work will be around knowledge transfer and delivery of best practice by farmers.

“Not everything is known right now in terms of what we can do. We are setting the focus, setting the target and establishing the key principles, which include maintaining farm output and incomes while reducing the emissions footprint. Now, it’s about focusing minds, energies and investment in relation to technologies and methods that can support emissions reduction.”

Narrowing of targets

Asked if there will soon be narrowing of sectoral target bands, he replies: “There’s an understanding that we have to get the ball rolling and get on with that work, build momentum, but there’s an understanding that we need some time to deliver results.”

I fully believe that we can make a good start and show agriculture’s ability to adapt and adopt best practice

An Taoiseach Micheál Martin said that there will be penalties for departments and sectors that miss their targets. Asked what time frame might this happen in, the minister replies: “As time evolves, if sectors are not living up to expectation, they’re going to have to assess where they are at and how they can deliver better. I fully believe that we can make a good start and show agriculture’s ability to adapt and adopt best practice.

Funding

“I see real potential in relation to low-interest loans to assist farmers in meeting emissions reduction objectives. Also, there is potential for private investment. We will look at how we can monetise farmers’ capacity to sequester carbon, and turn that into income streams for farmers. That’s something we are exploring across departments.

“There also is the potential of farmers to be paid for contributing to the electricity grid through microgeneration. We’ll be seeing that within months.”