Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 1 December 2021

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Common Agricultural Policy and Young Farmers: Engagement with Macra na Feirme

Mr. John Keane:

I thank the Senator for his questions; they are much appreciated. I will quickly give a tour of the schemes in terms of our members' attitude towards them and the practicality of them. I might ask Ms Richardson to give a piece in terms of the future aspects of them. We touched on some of them as well but some of our other proposals are on additions.

As for the eco-schemes that are there right now, Mr. Fitzgerald touched on some of them. In the case of the productive farmer, that is, the efficiency farmer which young farmers are absolutely trying to be, if you look at the non-productive areas proposal, whether that be 7% or otherwise, or the extensive livestock proposal in terms of 95 kg of organic nitrogen per hectare - which in money terms at the moment is a suckler cow and a calf - or if you look at the current tree planting measures, while some of them might be beneficial to the environment, they are reductive measures in terms of the area of ground that is available for farmers and for young farmers, in particular. To follow on from Deputy Fitzmaurice's point, it is important in the context of how no more land is being made. In addition, from the point of view of our productive and efficient farmers across both livestock enterprises and others, it is proving to be a challenge to meet the obligations under that.

When it comes to the fertiliser application piece and the GPS controlled fertiliser piece, there is no getting away from the fact it is a significant investment for farmers in the order of approximately €25,000 to invest in a load-sensing weight cell piece of machinery for spreading fertiliser. Practically, that is not something the majority of farmers will do. There will be reliance on contractors to do that if that measure is selected. Similar to when the low-emissions slurry spreading was introduced initially, there is a lack of equipment to meet the potential demand that might be there on foot of the requirement to meet that measure. In that sense, it is a measure which obviously has environmental benefits in reducing nitrogen, N, input, as Mr. Fitzgerald has touched on. However, from a practical point of view, there is neither the investment capital nor the investment potential there to meet that demand or to buy that piece of equipment for the majority of farmers.

In terms of the N rates, we recognise the menu in this regard has increased of those over the past week or so with the Department releasing the figures in respect of the stocking rate and the relatability to the output of N. This has been warmly received by our members. It offers an opportunity for farmers to reduce their input while meeting their forage demands through better use of fertilisers, increasing the amount of clover in swards and other environmental practices. Therefore, that has been positively received.

On the measures that we hope will be included, I welcome the Senator's comments, in that we all hope there will be more measures to be included and that they are practical for farmers on the ground. Ms Richardson will take us through some of the measures which we proposed. I thank the Senator for his questions.