The Department of Agriculture held an open policy debate on Ireland’s Agri-Food Strategy to 2030. We detail the range of areas discussed here. Two of the key messages were that the environment will play a central role in shaping agri-food strategies over the next decade and the need to focus on driving premium rather than volume.
The principle of setting targets and putting in place a roadmap for the development of the sector over the next 10 years is strong. Food Harvest 2020, developed under the Fianna Fáil-led Government in 2010, clearly demonstrated the potential for agriculture to grow its contribution to the Irish economy. There is no doubt that a roadmap showing potential for the sector to grow output by 42% – or to €12bn – helped keep the importance of the sector in focus during the five years of austerity budgets which followed.
Updated in 2015 and rebranded Food Wise 2025, the growth focus for the sector continued with a target of growing exports in agri-food to €19bn by 2025. If achieved, this will see the value of exports produced by Irish farmers increase by over €11bn or 142% since Food Harvest was launched in 2010.
When measured in output terms, the performance of the agri-food sector over the past decade has been phenomenal. But this is a very different picture to what we are seeing at farm level. Seldom have we seen as much uncertainty over the future of many of our key sectors.
Suckler farmers are questioning their future with the national herd in decline. At the same time, beef farmers are selling finished cattle at below the cost of production, incurring losses of €150 to €200 per head.
We see a similar level of concern around the future of our tillage sector with grain prices in recent years consistently trending below the cost of production. The sector is caught in the prefect storm of being forced to compete in global markets without the cost-reducing and yield-enhancing technologies available to global competitors.
The dividend from growth failed to make its way inside the farm gate. An agri-food strategy for 2030 has to tackle this
Growth in output from the dairy sector has yielded major dividends to farmers. But it has also created real challenges, most of which were not identified in previous strategies. Food Harvest and Food Wise were practically silent on issues around labour constraints, sectoral resilience, nutrient management and the current challenges created by increased volumes of calves coming off dairy herds.
A review of the Food Harvest 2020 strategy clearly exposes the extent to which the authors overlooked the challenge of dealing with increased volumes of dairy-bred calves coming from a rapidly expanding dairy herd.
Clearly the first question that any new strategy for the agri-food sector has to tackle is why an industry that has grown so rapidly over the past decade has not delivered for the primary producer on which its future depends. Regardless of sector, the view of farmers would point to a scenario where they are either running faster to stand still or – in the case of our beef and tillage sectors – where they are running faster and yet actually going backwards in terms of economic viability.
This reflects the extent to which farm viability was largely ignored in previous strategies. The intense growth focus ignored the need to put in place a strategy that ensured it was aligned to farmer incomes. As a result, the dividend from growth failed to make its way inside the farm gate.
An agri-food strategy for 2030 has to tackle this head on. A future strategy that ignores the lack of sustainability of the sector due to low farm incomes will have no credibility. We can no longer claim to have a sustainable industry that is dependent on farmers producing below the cost of production.
Unlike Food Wise 2025, which was effectively a bolt-on to the 2020 strategy, the 2030 strategy has to go back to the drawing board. This should start with questioning the merits of continuing with the current growth strategy which, to date, has largely been based on volume growth.
Adding value rather than growing volume would be much more aligned to a vision where farmgate prices underpin economic sustainability and, at the same time, recognise the environmental constraints that lie ahead.
We must also look beyond setting sectoral targets and instead look at how sectors can be encouraged to work together to achieve common goals – whether it be joining the dots between the dairy and beef sectors or encouraging further integration of the dairy and tillage sectors to help achieve a better nutrient balance.
The importance of a coherent policy linking the agriculture and renewable sectors should not be ignored in terms of potential environmental and economic dividends.
Brexit: farmers still exposed to costly Brexit
UK prime minister Boris Johnson. \ REUTERS/Dylan Martinez
As we go to press, the chances of a Brexit deal are high. Any agreement, assuming it receives the necessary support within Westminster, will remove the threat of a no-deal Brexit. In that sense it is a relief but the current deal, as we understand it, does nothing to protect our agri-food sector – it merely buys time.
The introduction of tariffs and/or the destruction in value of the UK as a food export market is still the direction of travel. Either outcome will severely undermine the economics of Irish agriculture.
Speaking at the agri-food conference on Wednesday, the mood music from An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar had changed to reflect this. He warned of possible tariffs, divergence in regulatory standards and product displacement. The Government policy of hoping for the best on agricultural trade with the UK post-Brexit has changed dramatically. Whatever the outcome from negotiations, farmers are heading for a hard and costly Brexit. If the Government is to maintain credibility with farmers, such warnings cannot be made without bringing forward the financial solutions that have been promised both at national and EU level.
What we have on the table is a political but not an economical solution to Brexit.
Protests: not how farmers do their business
Protestors confront Meat Industry Ireland representatives at the Department of Agriculture where the beef taskforce is to meet.
All farmers and farm organisations should condemn the aggressive behaviour that took place outside the Department of Agriculture on Monday morning.
This is not how farmers go about doing their business and no small group should be allowed to portray farmers in this light.
It is not about whether you agree or disagree with the legitimacy of the argument that was being put forward. It is whether or not you agree with, as was reported on national media, “the rugby-tackling and repeated kicking of individuals by farmers”.
It is, of course, a chain of events that would never have happened had the ABP Food Group shown any commitment to de-escalating tensions with farmers.
Instead, ABP appears intent to further inflame the situation by maintaining the injunctions taken by C&D Foods, which is wholly owned by Larry Goodman.
Seldom have we seen a business that has secured so much from the State show such disregard for a minister and his or her Department.
As financial pressure mounts, farmers need the beef taskforce to get to work immediately and deliver real results.
Women & Agriculture Conference: Vicky Phelan the star attraction
Vicky Phelan is the keynote speakers in Sligo. \ Claire Nash
The Women & Agriculture Conference takes place on Thursday 24 October in the Radisson Hotel in Sligo with Vicky Phelan as keynote speaker.
Vicky was the first person to go public about the Cervical Check cover-up which has led to the revelation that 221 other women were affected.
Her interview in Irish Country Living this week also reveals the extent to which she has taken responsibility for her own health. Early in 2018, doctors told her she had less than a year to live, just six months if she didn’t opt for chemotherapy. However, she refused to accept this, and as a researcher having worked for many years in UL and WIT, she researched and got access to the drug Pembrolizumab.
Now her tumours have shrunk by 50% and she will be standing in front of 600 women telling her story next week. She is also helping others affected by cancer in their research.
The Department of Agriculture held an open policy debate on Ireland’s Agri-Food Strategy to 2030. We detail the range of areas discussed here. Two of the key messages were that the environment will play a central role in shaping agri-food strategies over the next decade and the need to focus on driving premium rather than volume.
The principle of setting targets and putting in place a roadmap for the development of the sector over the next 10 years is strong. Food Harvest 2020, developed under the Fianna Fáil-led Government in 2010, clearly demonstrated the potential for agriculture to grow its contribution to the Irish economy. There is no doubt that a roadmap showing potential for the sector to grow output by 42% – or to €12bn – helped keep the importance of the sector in focus during the five years of austerity budgets which followed.
Updated in 2015 and rebranded Food Wise 2025, the growth focus for the sector continued with a target of growing exports in agri-food to €19bn by 2025. If achieved, this will see the value of exports produced by Irish farmers increase by over €11bn or 142% since Food Harvest was launched in 2010.
When measured in output terms, the performance of the agri-food sector over the past decade has been phenomenal. But this is a very different picture to what we are seeing at farm level. Seldom have we seen as much uncertainty over the future of many of our key sectors.
Suckler farmers are questioning their future with the national herd in decline. At the same time, beef farmers are selling finished cattle at below the cost of production, incurring losses of €150 to €200 per head.
We see a similar level of concern around the future of our tillage sector with grain prices in recent years consistently trending below the cost of production. The sector is caught in the prefect storm of being forced to compete in global markets without the cost-reducing and yield-enhancing technologies available to global competitors.
The dividend from growth failed to make its way inside the farm gate. An agri-food strategy for 2030 has to tackle this
Growth in output from the dairy sector has yielded major dividends to farmers. But it has also created real challenges, most of which were not identified in previous strategies. Food Harvest and Food Wise were practically silent on issues around labour constraints, sectoral resilience, nutrient management and the current challenges created by increased volumes of calves coming off dairy herds.
A review of the Food Harvest 2020 strategy clearly exposes the extent to which the authors overlooked the challenge of dealing with increased volumes of dairy-bred calves coming from a rapidly expanding dairy herd.
Clearly the first question that any new strategy for the agri-food sector has to tackle is why an industry that has grown so rapidly over the past decade has not delivered for the primary producer on which its future depends. Regardless of sector, the view of farmers would point to a scenario where they are either running faster to stand still or – in the case of our beef and tillage sectors – where they are running faster and yet actually going backwards in terms of economic viability.
This reflects the extent to which farm viability was largely ignored in previous strategies. The intense growth focus ignored the need to put in place a strategy that ensured it was aligned to farmer incomes. As a result, the dividend from growth failed to make its way inside the farm gate.
An agri-food strategy for 2030 has to tackle this head on. A future strategy that ignores the lack of sustainability of the sector due to low farm incomes will have no credibility. We can no longer claim to have a sustainable industry that is dependent on farmers producing below the cost of production.
Unlike Food Wise 2025, which was effectively a bolt-on to the 2020 strategy, the 2030 strategy has to go back to the drawing board. This should start with questioning the merits of continuing with the current growth strategy which, to date, has largely been based on volume growth.
Adding value rather than growing volume would be much more aligned to a vision where farmgate prices underpin economic sustainability and, at the same time, recognise the environmental constraints that lie ahead.
We must also look beyond setting sectoral targets and instead look at how sectors can be encouraged to work together to achieve common goals – whether it be joining the dots between the dairy and beef sectors or encouraging further integration of the dairy and tillage sectors to help achieve a better nutrient balance.
The importance of a coherent policy linking the agriculture and renewable sectors should not be ignored in terms of potential environmental and economic dividends.
Brexit: farmers still exposed to costly Brexit
UK prime minister Boris Johnson. \ REUTERS/Dylan Martinez
As we go to press, the chances of a Brexit deal are high. Any agreement, assuming it receives the necessary support within Westminster, will remove the threat of a no-deal Brexit. In that sense it is a relief but the current deal, as we understand it, does nothing to protect our agri-food sector – it merely buys time.
The introduction of tariffs and/or the destruction in value of the UK as a food export market is still the direction of travel. Either outcome will severely undermine the economics of Irish agriculture.
Speaking at the agri-food conference on Wednesday, the mood music from An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar had changed to reflect this. He warned of possible tariffs, divergence in regulatory standards and product displacement. The Government policy of hoping for the best on agricultural trade with the UK post-Brexit has changed dramatically. Whatever the outcome from negotiations, farmers are heading for a hard and costly Brexit. If the Government is to maintain credibility with farmers, such warnings cannot be made without bringing forward the financial solutions that have been promised both at national and EU level.
What we have on the table is a political but not an economical solution to Brexit.
Protests: not how farmers do their business
Protestors confront Meat Industry Ireland representatives at the Department of Agriculture where the beef taskforce is to meet.
All farmers and farm organisations should condemn the aggressive behaviour that took place outside the Department of Agriculture on Monday morning.
This is not how farmers go about doing their business and no small group should be allowed to portray farmers in this light.
It is not about whether you agree or disagree with the legitimacy of the argument that was being put forward. It is whether or not you agree with, as was reported on national media, “the rugby-tackling and repeated kicking of individuals by farmers”.
It is, of course, a chain of events that would never have happened had the ABP Food Group shown any commitment to de-escalating tensions with farmers.
Instead, ABP appears intent to further inflame the situation by maintaining the injunctions taken by C&D Foods, which is wholly owned by Larry Goodman.
Seldom have we seen a business that has secured so much from the State show such disregard for a minister and his or her Department.
As financial pressure mounts, farmers need the beef taskforce to get to work immediately and deliver real results.
Women & Agriculture Conference: Vicky Phelan the star attraction
Vicky Phelan is the keynote speakers in Sligo. \ Claire Nash
The Women & Agriculture Conference takes place on Thursday 24 October in the Radisson Hotel in Sligo with Vicky Phelan as keynote speaker.
Vicky was the first person to go public about the Cervical Check cover-up which has led to the revelation that 221 other women were affected.
Her interview in Irish Country Living this week also reveals the extent to which she has taken responsibility for her own health. Early in 2018, doctors told her she had less than a year to live, just six months if she didn’t opt for chemotherapy. However, she refused to accept this, and as a researcher having worked for many years in UL and WIT, she researched and got access to the drug Pembrolizumab.
Now her tumours have shrunk by 50% and she will be standing in front of 600 women telling her story next week. She is also helping others affected by cancer in their research.
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