Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I know the Minister of the State had a busy schedule today in Cork. I thank him for coming in at such a late hour to deal with this extremely important issue.

It concerns the challenges we face as a result of the war in Ukraine. As the Minister of State is aware, Ukraine produces 17% of the global supply of grain. If one looks at both Russia and Ukraine, they account for 30% of all exports in the global market. Some 42 million tonnes of grain were produced in Ukraine in 2021.

We have 272,000 ha which are used for cereal growing in this country. In 2012, it was 314,500 ha. There has been a substantial reduction over the past number of years. What action does the Department intend to take to encourage the farmers of this country to increase the acreage for cereal growing this year? We have a very short timeframe of just four weeks in real terms. I know that there are challenges in the supply of seed and fertiliser. Earlier, I saw a letter to distributors from a major importer outlining that it cannot guarantee supply of fertiliser. This is a very worrying issue and is something that we need to face up to.

This does not relate solely to the supply of grain for the farmers who have dairy and beef herds; it also relates to the supply of grain and wheat for food in this country. We need to have food security and I ask the Minister of State to respond on this issue at this important time?

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