IFA grain committee chair Mark Browne has told Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed that the Government must halt the continued decline of the Irish tillage sector. Since 2008, the area planted to the main cereal crops has reduced by 67,500ha, which represents a drop of over 20%.

The chair emphasised how the current drought crisis has underlined the strategic importance of the arable sector within the broader agricultural industry and a reminder that it underpins Ireland’s €12.6bn valued livestock, dairy, drinks and mushroom export sectors.

IFA renewables chair Tom Short stressed to the minister that although there has been a reasonable start to the 2018 harvest of winter crops, the situation with spring crops is different and he highlighted the potential crisis in waiting.

“At best, yields are predicted to be only average due to the wet cold spring and subsequent drought conditions, while it would appear that grain and straw volume will be poor particularly along the east and southeast coasts,” Short said.

On CAP 2020, Mark Browne impressed on the minister the critical importance of an increased overall CAP budget as campaigned for by the IFA.

On the tillage sector, the renewables chair emphasised that these farmers had been disproportionately affected by the current CAP due to convergence and greening issues and any continuation of these types of measures would only contribute to the further decline of the arable area.