Mr. Kieran McEvoy:

I am grateful for the invitation to the IFA. The challenges facing the Irish tillage sector at the present time are numerous, systemic and complex. The area devoted to tillage as a percentage of the utilisable agricultural area has been in significant decline in the post-war period due to fundamental changes in the Irish agricultural system. From the beginning of this century, the area devoted to tillage had largely appeared to stabilise between 350,000 ha and 400,000 ha. However, since 2012, the sector has shrunk further to sit between 300,000 ha and 335,000 ha.

The recent decline in area can be principally attributed to a reduction in cereal production, which has dropped by 50,000 ha since 2012. Ireland now has one of the lowest percentages of land devoted to arable cropping in the EU-27 at about 6.5% of the utilisable agricultural area. This is despite 36% of Irish soils, or approximately 2.5 million ha, being classified as highly to moderately suitable for tillage production in the Irish soil information system.

Government policy has, to some extent, recognised the decline in our tillage area, with the inclusion of a target under the climate action plan to increase the tillage area to 350,000 ha in 2025 and 400,000 ha by 2030. This was in recognition of the tillage sector’s favourable carbon emissions profile relative to other agricultural sectors, and the potential reduction in agricultural emissions that a greater tillage area could bring about.

The tillage sector has faced deepening income pressure since 2023, and without co-ordinated action, the 400,000 ha target is but a pipedream at the present time. Incomes dropped by nearly 70% in 2023 and made only a modest recovery in 2024. The sector is in crisis at the present and farmer morale is at an all-time low.