Teagasc is developing a carbon calculator that will allow every farmer to know where the balance of their farm’s emissions and carbon sequestration lies.

The tool will establish farm-specific carbon baselines and lay the groundwork for Irish farmers’ entry into EU carbon farming initiatives, according to Teagasc director Professor Frank O’Mara.

The project is part of Teagasc’s efforts to ramp up its work on sustainability, with the ICBF co-operating to put the digital platform together. It should be operational by early 2023.

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Bord Bia was also consulted on the project, with the carbon navigator completed by farmers in its quality assurance schemes acting as the “forerunner” to the new carbon tool.

“It [the EU’s plan] is coming around the corner and as part of the EU carbon farming proposals, every farm by 2028 needs to have access to verified emissions and removals data and we would see this platform as being a key part of the infrastructure needed in Ireland to deliver for all farmers,” O’Mara told the ASA conference last week.

“As well as sort of supporting farmers in their journey to reduce their emissions, we see this very much as being important to prepare for carbon farming, because we will be looking at the removal side of it as well as the emissions side in this platform.”

Emissions

The Teagasc director commented that farm profitability must be maintained as measures are rolled out to reduce agriculture’s greenhouse gas emissions.

This will be important to ensure Irish exports continue to remain competitive on the international stage, he said.

O’Mara also stated that reducing measures is more difficult for farmers here than it is for others.

“We are already pretty carbon efficient and what that means is that we don’t have as much of the low-hanging fruit that other countries might have.”