Ireland’s next agri-food industry strategy is be published in draft form by the end of November and go out to public consultation for up to eight weeks, its committee chair Tom Arnold has said.

The strategy will be significantly different from its predecessors, Food Wise 2025 and Food Harvest 2020, he told the Irish Farmers Journal 2020 Vision webinar on Tuesday.

Arnold said the strategy will reflect the totally changed time that agriculture finds itself in now, compared to 2015, when Food Wise was launched.

That, he pointed out was against the background of milk quotas ending and was therefore more production-focused.

Now the agri-food industry has to develop a strategy that fits into the different European framework of the Farm to Fork strategy and Green Deal.

The addition of COVID-19 to the mix makes it completely different circumstances entirely and the new strategy must have “a high level of visible sustainability”, he said.

The objective in the 2030 strategy will be “economic, environmental and social sustainability. Economic means a viable income along the chain, environmental means reducing emissions and sequestering carbon combined with stimulating rural communities.”

Both the draft and final strategies will be accompanied by an environmental assessment of their implications.

There is no more debate about the importance of sustainability

Arnold suggested that “moving towards a more diversified farming system in Ireland is going to be part of how we see the future, with forestry, tillage, horticulture and organic farming playing a part. There will be more emphasis on these, with the incentive structure and resources to deliver.

“There is no more debate about the importance of sustainability. It is what the world wants and what Ireland has the capacity to deliver.”

He agreed with the suggestion that food may be too cheap to be sustainable, but said that “we have no option but to go for the higher levels of sustainability that we can demonstrate”.

Two further strategy committee meetings are scheduled for November, from which the draft report will be published by the end of the month, followed by public consultation and an expected final report by the end of January.