The first tillage forum takes place this week. Many wonder, as do I, what it will or can do for the sector. Will it begin to pull together some elements of the Tillage Sector Development Plan 2012, which was aligned to Food Harvest 2020 or the many proposals submitted via the Food Wise 2025 process? Or will it confine itself to the current and serious issues that the tillage sector faces today?

From my perspective, it needs to do both. By addressing current issues, it may help to unblock bottlenecks which are important for the future of the sector. The one thing that nobody wants from this process is another talking shop.

So what should we realistically expect from the forum?

Joined-up thinking

The least we might expect is a level of joined-up thinking on the many serious issues that affect our industry. While grain must compete on quality and price, some of the current bottlenecks can be unlocked with a little co-operation and goodwill.

The last Government introduced a coupled payment for protein crop production with a threshold of 12,000ha. This could be increased if the funding was increased, but there is little point in doing this until industry is encouraged to use our current production.

This may require investment support for feed manufacturers, as there is little point in supporting the production of products that are not wanted?

We must use a wide-angled lens for actions taken by the Department and farming organisations.

Support for individual sectors may be justified, but such actions can have indirect and unintended consequences for other sectors.

Encourage native products

While Ireland is not self-sufficient in grains, it could produce more if both economics and structures were more attractive. The sector currently contributes the majority of the feed materials for our pig, poultry, beef, sheep and dairy sectors. We are also critical to our malting sector and so our brewing and distilling sectors. Native straw is a vital input for the livestock bedding, feed and composting and tillage land is an essential outlet for the different manures produced by the intensive livestock sectors.

However, there is little or no value given to native provenance. We sell products as Irish that use mainly imported ingredients from cheapest origin. What is Irish supposed to mean?

While a number of our new craft brewers and distillers are trying to make a virtue of being Irish, we are giving great credence to big whiskey exporters who use as little as 20% native raw material to produce a product that is protected by geographical status.

Double standards

Many tillage farmers remain perplexed at the double standards that apply to some areas. Municipal sludge remains a contentious issue. Imported grains can be treated, while native grains cannot. Chemicals can be used on imported grains that cannot be used in the EU.

While no one wants to put the integrity of Irish food in question, there are just far too many examples of where Irish grain producers are saddled with additional costs and restrictions in comparison with the sources of imports. Why have these standards and traceability requirements for Irish producers when they can be so conveniently ignored by end users. The big question is do we value provenance or is our industry to be based on imports that can hide behind the strict controls that exist for native crops and grains?

We have also seen examples of direct bias with tillage farmers being excluded from some recent Department schemes.

Sector threats

The tillage sector is continuously subject to new import threats. Our livestock sector is rightly protected against many ailments that could be imported. On the other hand, we appear to be doing nothing to prevent the widespread importation of threats like blackgrass for the crop sector.

Imported certified seed is frequently blamed for the increased occurrences of blackgrass. All imported seed (all seed) should implement zero tolerance for all problematic weeds. However, it now seems that we may also have these troublesome weeds coming in in imported grain and straw, and both of these sources can easily make their way on to farmland. It is time to put the country first.

Land access

There are also a range of issues to be discussed with regard to land access policies. These revolve around entitlement regulations, the price being paid, the over-generous tax allowances for leasing, etc.

To help encourage land productivity, could we foresee a situation where any land to be rented would have to have a minimal fertility level, at least in terms of pH, in order to be an eligible acre? This would help ensure that there would be co-operation between owners and active farmers.