Organic farmers have called for more representation in the Department of Agriculture and the IFA to help the sector grow.

It comes after Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon reiterated his target of 10% of Irish agricultural lands being farmed organically by 2030.

As of January, 5.5% of farmland was organic and 5,700 farmers were using organic practices.

However, there is no designated minister of state with responsibility for organic farming, a role previously filled by Pippa Hackett. Former chair of the Limerick Tipperary organic group Timmy O’Donoghue said that his worry is the lack of political leadership.

“We no longer have a minister with responsibility for the organic sector,” O’Donoghue said.

National body

“There’s no national representative body there to argue our case.”

In addition, Robert Barton, the group’s current chair, said farmers are always afraid to change.

“There’s a lot of people who don’t believe in the system. There’s a couple of years of transition where productivity will go down but it will come back again,” he told the Irish Farmers Journal.