Maura Hopkins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for speaking to us this evening on the difficult issue of the fodder crisis. Reflecting on my own contact with farmers over recent months, there appear to be two aspects to the crisis. If we look at this year, farmers, particularly in the west and north west, have had to house their livestock early. We had a bad summer which resulted in late silage and therefore quality was, at times, compromised. As we are all very aware, we have had a prolonged winter and farmers have been extremely stressed and exhausted trying to support their animals as best they can. Obviously, the big concern is around access to credit to purchase fodder and meal over that timeframe. As the Minister of State is aware, this is an issue I have raised with him on a number of occasions, particularly with regard to the transport scheme that was introduced. As he knows, I had concerns at the time with regard to certain counties being included within that transport scheme.

From speaking and working with quite a number of farmers locally, I know that corrective action was taken by many of them. Some farmers bought fodder locally, as that is how it works in rural communities. Others sold stock. Cattle prices were quite good. That allowed them to take a level of corrective action. However, we know that we are seeing the impact of climate change. There is no doubt about that.As Senators Dolan and Boyhan said, this is more of a norm than an exception. We certainly need to work with farmers to ensure they now plan for longer winters with regard to fodder reserves. This is crucial because we need to see a situation where, at the very minimum, one month's feed is planned for as a reserve.

There is much debate around the meal vouchers. Currently when farmers run out of fodder we know that the animals' diet should consist of a maximum of 50% meal and 50% fodder. The introduction of meal vouchers at this stage is not the full solution. It is positive that the import scheme is now introduced but for the future we need to be proactive in trying to ensure planning for longer winters and that we work with all of the different agencies such as Teagasc and farming organisations to assist farmers. The positives within the agricultural sector have been mentioned here. I have listened to a number of radio debates on the immense work undertaken by Bord Bia and by Department officials to try to progress the market in China. I am very aware that a huge amount of work is being done to diversify and to support farmers in the best ways possible so they can make a sustainable living. In this regard, we need to learn lessons from what happened over this prolonged period and we need to try to support farmers to ensure there is a greater fodder reserve. This is especially difficult in the north and the north west when one is dealing with more marginal land.