Future agricultural policy in NI will need to create a better focus on profitability as opposed to production, a senior figure in one of NI’s main conservation charities has said.

Speaking to MLAs last week, John Martin from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) made the case for basing the majority of farm support on “public money for public goods” where payments are for delivering environmental measures.

“They (farmers) obviously have a role within food production as well, and that is going to continue,” he acknowledged.

Martin argued that intensification in agriculture, and the associated increase in production (encouraged by government-backed strategies such as “Going for Growth”), has had a negative impact on the likes of water quality and biodiversity. But he made clear that farmers are key to delivering environmental improvements going forward.

“Don’t take our views as a criticism of farmers per se, but as criticism of policy that has been driven in a certain direction,” he told Stormont’s agriculture committee.

“We work with 400 or 500 farmers across NI that are doing fantastic things for wildlife and without them, species would be going extinct, it’s as simple as that,” Martin added.

New legislation

At the meeting, representatives from the green lobby pressed for new legislation to be introduced at Stormont which puts legally binding targets on the NI Executive to meet various environmental objectives. With legal targets in place, they argued that resources would then have to be found from within government to ensure these targets are met.

Sean Kelly from NI Environment Link was critical of various environmental strategies that have been created for NI in the past, such as policies for sustainable development and biodiversity.

“Unfortunately, these strategies have not achieved a lot because unless there is some legal footing where targets have to be met, resources tend not to go that way, and then they remain a wish list,” he said.

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