The Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) is concerned that the policies being pursued by European Commissioner for Agriculture Janusz Wojciechowski may further threaten food security.

IFA president Tim Cullinan said elements of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and Europe’s Farm to Fork strategy are “not supporting productive farming and will have consequences for food security”.

Cullinan made his comments following what he described as a “constructive meeting” with Commissioner Wojciechowski in Brussels on Thursday.

Discussion

The IFA president said that the issues of an extraordinary increase in farm input costs, the EU Farm to Fork and CAP policies were discussed at the meeting.

Speaking following the meeting, he said cost surges are affecting all sectors, but, in particular, are having a “devastating impact” on the pig, poultry and horticulture sectors.

The Tipperary farmer said it was a solemn morning to be meeting the Commissioner given the overnight events in the Ukraine.

“While these events will have huge and tragic consequences, they will also impact further on costs and food production,” he said.

Impact

Tim Cullinan said that there “needs to be a lot more work done by the EU” on the impact of its polices on EU farmers.

“Farmers are currently being hit by extraordinary cost inflation for fertiliser, feed and energy. This is not sustainable.

"It is already having a devastating effect on our pig sector and the Commission needs to act immediately to address this,” he said.

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Policies pursued by European Commission ‘threaten’ food security – IFA

The huge and tragic consequences of events in Ukraine will also affect farm costs and food production, according to the Irish Farmers' Association.