Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

There is no doubt that costs have been a challenge for farmers over the last couple of years and have had an impact on demand. Costs have also assisted in the massive transformation that is under way at farm level. The cost of fertiliser has significantly reduced this year. It was expensive at the start of the year but as the year progressed the price very significantly reduced. If cost is the main driver, you would have expected to see a drop in price last year because it was very expensive all year. At the start of this year fertiliser was not as expensive. You would expect, whenever the price came back closer to a regular price, that the price would have shot up but that has not been the case in terms of usage or purchase. In fact, the reduction in the use of chemical fertilisers has continued. That is because of the massive transformation that is happening at farm level, which does not often get the attention it deserves, and the massive adaptation and work that farmers are doing in this space. A 30% reduction over two years is radical and that work is ongoing. We are working at a policy level to support that and we have put in place a number of schemes to drive that on. We are doing a lot of work in knowledge transfer and research to support that. Last year and this year, we have had the multispecies sward scheme, which has promoted the application and resowing of multispecies sward so farmers can move away from the need to use chemical fertilisers. Also this year, there has been a very significant uptake in the lime spreading scheme to improve soil fertility. My Department has run and has funded soil-sampling schemes to encourage farmers to sample their soil, which was not something that was always happening, so that nutrients are not being applied unnecessarily. The scheme is working well.

In terms of nitrates, we are looking to radically change the efficient use of organic fertiliser and slurry because we want it put on at the right time, in the right quantity, in the right weather and in the right growing conditions. If farmers do that and utilise the resource, I believe we can use it better. Again, the transition is fast moving. That means farmers are already utilising resources in a much more efficient way. When fertiliser is used properly and right you are minimising and removing the pollution risk. Also, as a result you are removing the need to use chemical fertilisers instead. We funded that through the low-emissions slurry spreading grants. There was 40% grant aid available but now there is 60% grant aid available to enable farmers to buy low-emissions slurry spreaders. That means slurry is applied directly into the ground and no gases are released into the air, and utilises grass uptake in a much better way.

We have seen 5,000 of those machines purchased through that grant. That is making a massive difference and is working. I will give an example. Knowledge transfer is important here, as is getting that knowledge and research applied at farm level. There is good work going on and we are seeing that in the figures. This is how things are evolving. Four or five years ago people would have thought you were fanciful if you were talking about this, or that this was not possible. On the Lyons estate and the research firm attached to UCD, there have been trials ongoing for the last three years with three strips of land. There is drainage in the land to drain all the water coming off each of the strips into one funnel point where it gets tested. They are able to assess the water run-off as to what is happening in the soil and the water. They treat the three strips differently. On the three strips of land they have the exact same animals, born at the same time, of the same breed and the same age, etc. They keep them and treat them differently. The only difference between the animals is the type of land they are grazed on. One of the strips of land is traditional monoculture ryegrass with a very high fertiliser usage at the upper limits, so it is very intensively farmed. The second set of cattle is grazed on a high clover content sward with a lot less chemical fertiliser. The other cattle are grazed on a multispecies sward with minimal or very little fertiliser usage. What clover and multispecies swards do is pull the nitrogen out of the air and fix it into the soil naturally, avoiding the need to spread chemical fertiliser with nitrogen in it because these plants are taking the nitrogen out of the air, where it is very bountiful, and putting it into the soil. The benefit of having either clover or multispecies swards is that the amount of nitrogen that is pulled out of the air and into the soil is much more balanced with growth rates. As the plants are growing, the amount of nitrogen getting pulled out of the air and fixed into the soil is in balance with the amount of growth that is happening in that sward. They do not have unnecessary excess nutrients that provide the opportunity for those nitrogens to be leached.