Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael)
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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?

Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle and the Ceann Comhairle for including this important matter for discussion. The scale and horror of the Russian invasion of Ukraine is unimaginable. The conflict will have implications for years to come. Right now, one of these issues is the impact on global food supplies, especially in the context of grain. I commend the Minister of State on his actions to practically address the issue by encouraging farmers to grow grain but we are eager to hear how that will work. Like Deputy Burke, I mention the issues relating to food security in general. In my first contribution in this House, I focused on food security. Soon afterwards, in the early days of the pandemic, I focused on it again with the then Minister for Agriculture, Food and Marine, Deputy Creed. It is clear that the Department did not learn from that crisis but perhaps it will learn from this one.

Despite having such an extensive agriculture sector, we still rely very heavily on food imports. The Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine's policies and choice of markets have forced farmers into a small number of areas, which has very much reduced the diversity of our produce and, ultimately, reduced our resilience. Prior to the crisis in Ukraine, there was already a real need to shift away from producing feed grain and to scale up the production of food grain for direct human consumption. There is a real policy need to scale up local and indigenous nature-friendly food production. Increased production of cereals, pulses, fruit and vegetables would make Irish agriculture more environmentally friendly, would support Irish producers and, crucially, would improve our food security and sovereignty.

Pivoting quickly to tillage would be a challenge for the sector, but it needs to happen now if we are to have a grain harvest next year, because , obviously, there are many unknowns. Existing tillage farmers often face price volatility and unfair trading practices. As a result, growers will need support. Can the Minister of State outline the support the Department will be offering and the steps it will be taking to underpin that support?

It seems as though it may have, but has the situation prompted a shift in the thinking of Minister of State, of the senior Minister, Deputy McConalogue, and of the Department towards ensuring food security? Deputy Burke mentioned fertiliser. Are we to move away from reliance on that?

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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I will start by thanking Deputies Burke and Cairns for raising this important issue. The illegal invasion of Ukraine places the people of Ukraine and the dreadful plight the currently face foremost in our minds. The related grain and fertiliser supply issues have led to discussions across Europe on the issue of food security and the associated disruptions to supply lines.

These issue were discussed by EU agriculture ministers at an extraordinary AGRIFISH Council meeting last week. An appropriate response is being considered by the European Commission. On the back of that, we expect some proposals to support the agrifood sector from the Commission in the coming days. We also expect that we will continue to benefit from the free movement of food products and that we will continue to import and export food products within the EU. A contingency plan was developed at EU level during the Covid-19 crisis to ensure that EU citizens would not face food shortages during crises. A key part of this plan was the establishment of a European food security preparedness and response mechanism to ensure exchange of information and strengthened co-ordination on supply chains. Ireland will be an active participant in this mechanism and will be working with EU colleagues to ensure a common response. The first meeting of that group overseeing the mechanism will take place tomorrow, 9 March. The purpose of the meeting is to specifically discuss the food security impact of the energy and input price increases and of the situation in Ukraine. At national level, we have established a rapid response team within the Department to actively monitor the impact on agrifood supply chains and inflationary pressures arising from the developing situation in Ukraine.

A comprehensive information pack for farmers and their advisers on soils, nutrients and fertilisers has been put together by Teagasc in conjunction with my Department. A series of 20 fact sheets were made available at the start of this year on how to optimise the use of nutrients and to help farmers address the challenge of maintaining their farm outputs in the face of rising fertiliser costs and reduced availability. We met with the farm bodies this evening to discuss all possible options available to manage disruptions to the feed supply chain. Officials from the rapid response team have already begun engaging with all parts of the feed and fertiliser industry and we will be meeting them at ministerial level also in the coming days. A range of issues were discussed at this evening's meeting, with the focus very much centred on feed, fertiliser and fuel.

We cannot look at any part of this crisis of spiralling input costs in isolation. Every option has to be on the table to ensure that our farm systems are robust and prepared for the challenges in the year ahead. That is why we have agreed to form a group headed by Teagasc, but including all stakeholders, to focus on potential responses. Among those is the possibility of asking farmers, particularly tillage farmers, to grow more crops, in parts of the country where that is suitable. That measure will not be compulsory. Obviously, different parts of the country have different strengths in respect of their agricultural activity. Some areas have better ability to grow tillage crops, others grass and others again forage crops, which could be used by out-wintering cattle in order to remove some of the pressure in the context of demand for silage next winter.

On tillage, we are fortunate that the success of higher-yielding winter-sown crops is estimated to be greater for the coming harvest due to favourable autumn planting conditions. We are also very aware of the compressed timeline we have in the six- to eight-week window for spring crop establishment. Before we decide on specific response measures, however, it is important that we engage with all stakeholders to determine the availability of the inputs required, such as those relating to seed and fertiliser, farm equipment and grain-handling capacity. There are options in the context of forage crops, the management of silage production and the production of maize or beet. There are many sensible things we can do from an agronomy perspective in order to ensure our systems are as robust as possible.

The implications of anything we do require careful consideration. There is no one solution to the issues we face. We have a diverse farming system and we will need to rely on all aspects in the weeks and months ahead.

Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister in particular for his confirmation that there was a meeting this evening between the Minister of State and his officials and the farming organisations. I agree that there is a challenge as to the lack of clarity on the availability of seed and, in particular, fertiliser. The other issue of course is the cost of fuel.

There is also further challenge regarding the rotation cycle which tillage farmers are working on with Teagasc, and whether there can be a deviation from that three-year cycle for crops on foot of the changes that have occurred. I ask that this be taken into account in the advice that will be offered over the next four weeks. The priority then, basically, is to try to increase the acreage by encouraging farmers to do this and to make all of the necessary supports available in order that we can get more people on board to grow cereal crops this year.

Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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I thank the Minister of State for the update. He mentioned a little bit about feed and fuel, and that is crucial for the whole sector. Seeds will play a pivotal role in the process, and the Minister of State talked about the availability of seeds to grow crops. We are supposed to declare an interest when we talk about particular matters in the House . My family owns a small seed company. My mother started the company because seeds are fundamental to food. Without seeds, we simply do not have any food, be it plant- or animal-based. We need to secure seeds not only for this year but for future harvests. If we are concerned about the import of wheat at the moment then I am wondering if the Department is giving the same consideration to the concern around the importation of seed for wheat. Are there plans to save the seed from the crops that will be harvested this year and in the years that follow as well?

Has that been a consideration of the Department so far? We have seen figures for how much wheat we import and how much of that comes from Ukraine and Russia. Have we done the same type of analysis of seed imports as well and where they are from globally? I am not aware of them.

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputies for their follow-up questions. To respond to Deputy Colm Burke regarding the EU response and the deviation in crop rotation, these issues are being looked at and the potential response to them will be worked through. Everything is being examined at EU level. There is also the area of set-aside being talked about, as well as the ecological focus areas, EFAs. If they could be ploughed again, that would, over a period and over a large area of the country, give us considerable extra ground. These are all issues that officials in the Department and the Minister, Deputy McConalogue, and the Minister of State, Senator Hackett, and I are continuing to engage with at European level to try to get maximum flexibility there for an appropriate response in that regard. I hope to have more clarity on that and the type of supports package that might be in place from the EU in the near future, even in the coming days.

Deputy Cairns raised points regarding seed, and Deputy Colm Burke raised the point about the amount of grain that is produced by Ukraine and Russia. While we do not necessarily import that directly or purchase it from them, we are part of the global food supply chain and if that 20% to 30% of grain is not produced because the war is likely to impact on that, it will have an overall impact on world food supply chains. What we want to do is ensure that our system in Ireland is as robust as possible. The points Deputy Cairns highlighted are valid in terms of ensuring not just the immediate focus of the next six to eight weeks of the spring crop planting season but also that we look at the years into the future, because the impacts of this conflict will be there for some time into the future. However, we have a very resilient and robust agriculture sector. Farmers are very good at working together, and have done so in the past. With the support of the Government, the Department and the farming organisations we met this evening, we will work together across all the industry, which has a key role to play here, to ensure we support the farmers to do what needs to be done to avoid a crisis. We do not have a crisis in food security right now and we do not have a feed crisis, but we want to make sure we do not have one next winter. That is why we must use the time we have now, the best available to us, to support farmers to do what needs to be done to secure the food supply chain into the future.