In this article Irish farmers are being urged to be more environmentally friendly when producing food products. They are encouraged to apply more sustainable food production methods to abide the current climate change crisis. The main problem occurring is that the standards expected within the given timeframes are not realistic nor achievable due to the time needed to develop new technologies that will be needed. Agriculture accounts for about 40% of Irish greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions with 57% of this being from enteric fermentation of livestock and a further 27% from agricultural soils. There are many technological measures to reduce GHG available as well as various others in the pipeline.
The types of technological measures currently available which were stated in this article for farmers to participate in are using low emission slurry spreading (LESS) techniques for example using a dribble bar, trailing shoe or umbilical cord. Another option is to reduce the crude protein in livestock diets, change to predominantly urea based fertilisers and reduce the overall chemical nitrogen use. Feed additives such as seaweed, clover and practices like optimizing soil pH and nutrient levels are other methods which are being researched currently.
“It is a significant challenge for research knowledge transfer, farmers and the agri-food industry to find and deploy these solutions at a pace, scale and location sufficient to meet the timeframe of environmental targets.”
This quote emphasises on the pressures the agricultural industry is under to meet the environmental targets outlined. The Climate Action Plan 2017 set out to reduce GHG emissions by 10%-15% by 2030. These targets are beyond there capability in the timeframe given due to the time consuming research that needs to be done in order to gain sufficient results. More realistic targets need to be set while also working along side the farmers and providing schemes and grants to encourage these changes.
When Ireland is being compared to other EU countries it is the most efficient as the average diet of Irish dairy cows is 81.8% forage being the highest in the EU which makes it the most sustainable. Based off the EU standards Irish water quality is in a good status but in Irish standards its conditions are decreasing rapidly as well as our biodiversity status. Irelands emissions per unit of output is good on an international basis but from an Irish perception it is quite low.
The increased global population is raising the demand for food but it needs to be produced sustainably and with the least environmental damage as possible. There are many types of sustainable technologies available for this to happen and many more at the research and development stages but these technologies can not be produced at the speed needed to meet the environmental targets being outlined. The agri-food industry in under pressure to meet these targets as they can be quite unrealistic. Smaller, more efficient targets need to be set to allow researchers to develop new methods of farming and for farmers to adopt to these.
Notes: Katie Noonan, MSc Agri-food Sustainability & Technology student, K.noonan3@nuigalway.ie
Source: (O′Mara, Richards et al. 2021)