Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister. Any measures that will immediately address the prices will make a big difference to families. I welcome the Minister's intention to address Irish agriculture's dependency on chemical fertilisers. It represents the type of intensive farming that has been forcing farmers to do more and more for less and less for a long time now, only to the great benefit of those fertiliser companies.

I think the term "sustainable agriculture" has become almost meaningless. It is frequently used by the Department and in the industry to describe its opposite. The term needs to mean practices that can be maintained using natural approaches that use the strength of our soil and climate rather than leaving farmers reliant on chemical imports. Our soil fertility is an incredible natural asset that needs to be respected and managed correctly. The Department must start ensuring nutrient management through the use of organic practices and we desperately need greater knowledge transfer in this area. The soils, nutrients and fertiliser campaign the Minister talked about is a welcome development but we need additional measures to foster far greater sustainable soil management practices. This change must happen and the sooner it happens the easier it will be for farmers. We need the information and the knowledge transfer.

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