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The citizens’ assembly on biodiversity has been told that the funds allocated to agri-environmental schemes are insufficient to allow farmers to make real progress on biodiversity loss.
The assembly heard that hedgerow management, lower pesticide usage and reducing the management of field boundaries are all measures being undertaken on farms to improve biodiversity, when it convened last Saturday.
Farmer organisations had the opportunity to address the assembly as the body seeks to form views on biodiversity which will feed into Government policy.
“We are now being expected as farmers to do more in what is effectively a decreasing CAP budget,” Irish Farmers Association (IFA) environment chair Paul O’Brien said.
“I would be suggesting that that is a problem for us, a fully-funded environmental scheme, a fully-funded biodiversity scheme. That is what we are looking for.
“Thirty-three percent of farmland is in an agri-environmental scheme - that could be more. There could be more ambition by Government if we were funded enough to do that.”
Trust eroded - INHFA
The Irish Natura and Hill Farmers Association (INHFA) claimed that the implementation of environmental regulations on farmers had caused issues in the past, particularly for those farming on designated lands.
Flawed implementation and messaging has damaged farmers’ trust for environmental rules, according to the group’s Sligo representative Aideen McGloin.
“Farmers are very concerned with everything they were supposed to do as a good farmer for the 150 years now being talked about getting turned on its head,” said McGloin.
“I’m not saying it’s a bad idea, but I’m just saying it is a huge sea change for farming and farmers will need a lot of help to get around this.”
Consultation and compensation are key to implementing biodiversity measures on farms, she suggested.
The result of a cheap food policy - ICMSA
Biodiversity problems were ultimately created by the cheap food policy pursued by supermarkets, argued Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association (ICMSA) president Pat McCormack.
McCormack called for an increased consumer awareness of low food prices.
“Every citizen on the globe needs to be aware that there is a cost associated with a cheap-food policy,” McCormack told the assembly.
“Unfortunately, we have seen our retailers and our supermarkets - and some of the leading ones are the worst culprits - we have seen them downgrade and practically give away beef, milk, vegetables coming up to Christmas.
"That comes at a cost. It comes at a human cost, an environmental cost and there is no point in saying otherwise.”
Engagement needed - Macra
Macra’s Shane Fitzgerald said that young farmers had been disappointed in the way that they were being consulted on environmental policy.
“From a young farmers' point of view and from Macra’s point of view, we felt a little bit disappointed that we weren’t involved in some of the policy making and decision making a little bit earlier in the process,” Fitzgerald stated.
“For the draft of the fourth national biodiversity action plan, there wasn’t any farm, farmer representatives or farmer organisations on the working group or forums.
“We constantly try to make that case that we should be involved in the very beginning and not brought in near the end when a lot of the decisions could already have been made.”
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