Future farmland ownership is to be examined in a new project, which will look at property registers to see who is buying up land.
Led by Dr Louise Fitzgerald from Dublin City University (DCU), A Just Transition for Land in Ireland (JUSTLAND), has received €300,000 in funding from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Agriculture and will run over 22 months, beginning in September.
The project will contribute to new methodology for analysing land ownership and its implications through two pilot projects, one in the area of forestry and one in agriculture.
Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal, researcher Dr Patrick Bresnihan from Maynooth University, said they will help identify the actors involved in land ownership, and the consequences of policy for who is able to access land.
“The backdrop to this is the demographic shift. You’ve got older farmers that are reaching a point where they can’t continue to farm and their kids don’t want to farm. Then what happens to the land?” he said.
“If all that’s happening is they’re selling it to the highest bidder and that happens to be an investment bank, that is maybe going to contradict was Ireland’s land use policy is.”
The researchers claim there are significant challenges facing Irish policy-making in land use, land use change and Ireland’s climate targets within agriculture.
These include knowledge gaps around changing patterns of land ownership, competing policy aims and fairness, and transparency within the sector.
“In the next decade, there is going to be a lot of land being sold/bought and it’s important to know who’s buying it and if the State could intervene to ensure that we don’t see a massive concentration of land in the hands of not just investors, but maybe a smaller number of larger farmers for example. That maybe is not a desirable thing.”
“We’ll be looking at the property register, we’ll be talking to local landowners, the IFA, and other relevant bodies, and doing lots of on the ground field work.
“This will try to keep a track of how land has been changing hands for the last number of years, whose been buying up the land and what price it’s going for.
“Also, we can get a sense of what kind of impact it has on local land use and land owners.”
The project aims to support the transition to sustainable land use management as a means of addressing the country’s climate and biodiversity crisis.
A large proportion of the funding will go towards hiring a post-doctoral researcher and a research assistant. The rest will help facilitate public meetings and workshops.
“Fundamentally, if we want better types of forestry or different types of agricultural production that’s more sustainable, the question of access to land is key.
“If land is very expensive, you’re not going to be able to have different, diverse types of land use.”
Read more
Colm McCarthy: planning system problems
A long-term plan is now required to protect our forests
Know your market when growing forage
Roads policy leaving farm families out in the cold
Future farmland ownership is to be examined in a new project, which will look at property registers to see who is buying up land.
Led by Dr Louise Fitzgerald from Dublin City University (DCU), A Just Transition for Land in Ireland (JUSTLAND), has received €300,000 in funding from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Agriculture and will run over 22 months, beginning in September.
The project will contribute to new methodology for analysing land ownership and its implications through two pilot projects, one in the area of forestry and one in agriculture.
Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal, researcher Dr Patrick Bresnihan from Maynooth University, said they will help identify the actors involved in land ownership, and the consequences of policy for who is able to access land.
“The backdrop to this is the demographic shift. You’ve got older farmers that are reaching a point where they can’t continue to farm and their kids don’t want to farm. Then what happens to the land?” he said.
“If all that’s happening is they’re selling it to the highest bidder and that happens to be an investment bank, that is maybe going to contradict was Ireland’s land use policy is.”
The researchers claim there are significant challenges facing Irish policy-making in land use, land use change and Ireland’s climate targets within agriculture.
These include knowledge gaps around changing patterns of land ownership, competing policy aims and fairness, and transparency within the sector.
“In the next decade, there is going to be a lot of land being sold/bought and it’s important to know who’s buying it and if the State could intervene to ensure that we don’t see a massive concentration of land in the hands of not just investors, but maybe a smaller number of larger farmers for example. That maybe is not a desirable thing.”
“We’ll be looking at the property register, we’ll be talking to local landowners, the IFA, and other relevant bodies, and doing lots of on the ground field work.
“This will try to keep a track of how land has been changing hands for the last number of years, whose been buying up the land and what price it’s going for.
“Also, we can get a sense of what kind of impact it has on local land use and land owners.”
The project aims to support the transition to sustainable land use management as a means of addressing the country’s climate and biodiversity crisis.
A large proportion of the funding will go towards hiring a post-doctoral researcher and a research assistant. The rest will help facilitate public meetings and workshops.
“Fundamentally, if we want better types of forestry or different types of agricultural production that’s more sustainable, the question of access to land is key.
“If land is very expensive, you’re not going to be able to have different, diverse types of land use.”
Read more
Colm McCarthy: planning system problems
A long-term plan is now required to protect our forests
Know your market when growing forage
Roads policy leaving farm families out in the cold
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