The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has said that the IFA’s Smart Farming programme provides “practical actions” to enable farmers to help the environment.

The programme is voluntary and helps support farmers to change their farming practices. The support is provided by the IFA, in partnership with the EPA.

"The EPA's State of the Environment Report, published last year, calls for the agriculture sector to go beyond improving efficiencies and focus on reducing total emissions,” EPA director-general, Laura Burke said.

“They [the farmers] can do this by breaking the link between animal numbers, fertiliser use and deteriorating water quality”.

Climate criteria

IFA president Tim Cullinan said that the role of programmes such as Smart Farming has never been as important, as farmers face potential challenges due to the climate bill.

"There is no silver bullet; it will require programmes like Smart Farming that give farmers confidence that investing in mitigation technologies or changing farming practices won't affect their competitiveness. Instead, they can save money while improving farm sustainability,” Cullinan said.

The scheme is currently open for applications and average cost savings of €5,600 and greenhouse gas emission reductions of 9% have been achieved by previous participants.