Don’t make decisions that will make farming a twilight industry, was the message from Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) deputy president Brian Rushe to Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue at the association’s AGM on Thursday.

He expressed concerns that there was a “guillotine movement” against farming and told the Minister that there was a fear that farmers would be left behind, in the context of climate change.

IFA environment chair Paul O’Brien said “targets that are unachievable will be detrimental in the long term” and sought a commitment that the 22% minimum cut in sectoral emissions become the maximum target for 2030.

IFA dairy chair Stephen Arthur said the Minister had the best job in Government. “You are the Minister of the best industry in the country,” he said.

Arthur highlighted the €2bn-plus in farmer investment in dairy expansion since quotas ended, saying “we have backed ourselves, have trust in us and back us too”.

The herd

There followed an exchange around the belief within the IFA that emissions cuts cannot involve a cut in the dairy or indeed beef herd.

Pressed on the matter, the Minister eventually said: “You are committed to cutting emissions and I am also committed to cutting emissions. Let’s work together to achieve that.”

It should be noted that, in 2021, the Minister repeatedly said that no cut in the national herd will be required to meet emissions targets, but the IFA wants to tie the Government down to a cast-iron commitment in that regard.

Outside of climate, inevitably it was rapidly escalating costs and the consequent erosion of margins that dominated proceedings.

Brian Rushe called for no dilution of CAP funding. “We want a roadmap to return all the €7bn of funds to Irish farmers,” he said.

New IFA grain chair Kieran McEvoy described a “perfect storm” of escalating fertiliser prices and impending cuts to most tillage farmers’ payments through CAP reform.

Tornado

Pig chair Roy Gaillie described the sector as “in a tornado”, with product prices not even meeting feed bills.

“We need an immediate significant injection of Government funding to ensure our survival,” he said.

Accepting that the pig sector is cyclical in nature, Gaillie added: “We have never seen a cycle as vicious as this one.”

Comment

Taoiseach Michael Martin issued a stark warning to Irish farming at the IFA AGM.

“Our choice now is to either honestly address the challenge that climate change poses for the sector and together harness the opportunities that this changing context presents or, as some voices counsel, to resist what I see is quickly becoming irresistible,” he said.

While he stressed that he was speaking as “a lifelong friend and champion of Irish agriculture”, he described the current moment as “a crossroads for Irish farming and forestry” where “threats and opportunities abound”.

While IFA president Tim Cullinan and the IFA front bench repeatedly committed to playing their part in tackling the climate emergency, their constant refrain to Minister Charlie McConalogue was that the need to maintain food output must be placed alongside as an equal priority.

Minister McConalogue’s references to current supports didn’t cut much ice with the room in Dublin’s Mansion House. The call is for a taskforce of all stakeholders to deliver a margin back to food producers, with the warning that will mean an unavoidable rise in food prices for consumers.

The year has barely started, but the issue of CAP reform, which dominated 2021, seems put to bed. However, there is pressure on the Minister to quickly respond to the pressure farmers are under. New year, new crisis.