Dr. Barry O'Reilly:

Tillage farmers have been very good adopters of new innovation and new technology. They were early adopters. Under the TAMS scheme, for example, a lot of new innovation and new technology is being supported. The objective is to try to increase the efficiency of farms and also to have a more precise approach that delivers an environmental benefit.

There is a lot of innovation happening in crop breeding. The Department has a comprehensive variety trialling programme in place at present and we have seen a lot of new varieties coming through the system with good sustainability traits. For example, we have winter barley varieties coming through with barley yellow dwarf virus resistance. Crop breeding is undergoing a lot of development, particularly in the area of new genomic techniques. This is an area the Department of agriculture is leading on at European level. It is something of which we are very supportive. It has great potential in terms of breeding new and better varieties that can result in benefits for consumers, farmers and the environment. That is progressing and we are very supportive of it.