Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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Question 21: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if it is possible to meet the targets as set out under Food Harvest 2020 while maintaining our targets to reduce agricultural emissions; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28664/12]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The Food Harvest 2020 report (FH2020) was developed by an industry-led committee which comprised key figures from industry, state agencies, academia and the farm bodies. The report contains the industry's strategic vision for the sector and sets ambitious targets for expansion in the decade to 2020. It contains 215 recommendations aimed at achieving sustainable growth, increased efficiency, higher productivity and competitiveness. Since becoming Minister, and as Chair of the High Level Implementation Committee for FH2020, I have whole-heartedly embraced the Food Harvest 2020 strategy and I am totally committed to ensuring its success.

The whole FH2020 strategy is built around the concept of smart green growth which means producing increased output in an environmentally sustainable way, and being able to prove this to the market. It also means embracing changes in practices at farm level to reduce the carbon footprint of the food that is being produced. Ireland's agricultural production is among the most carbon efficient in the world and our rain-fed, grass-based beef, milk and sheep production systems, which use very low cereal inputs, are making a significant contribution to tackling the challenge of sustainably increasing food output. I am confident that implementation of identified changes in practices at farm level, and application of the smart, green growth principle to agricultural production, will reduce the carbon footprint of agricultural produce.

Although there is no emissions reduction target for Irish agriculture, the sector continues to make incremental progress. However, it is recognised that the emissions reduction potential of the sector is quite limited. Since the 1990s, emissions have been falling slowly but steadily. For example, between 1990 and 2006 the amount of methane produced per kg of milk dropped by over 12%, mainly due to the rollout of technological advances in dairy production. Making better use of the land by producing more food and at the same time reducing the emissions per unit of food produced is therefore key to continued expansion.

The FH2020 High Level Implementation Committee has commissioned a team of independent consultants to carry out an environmental analysis of various scenarios involved in achieving the targets in the strategy. The analysis is to examine the following environmental issues:

· biodiversity,

· flora/fauna,

· water, including groundwater quality,

· soil,

· air quality,

· landscape and

· climatic factors including impacts on greenhouse gas emission levels.

The consultants are scheduled to deliver an interim report by the end of July with a final report due at the end of this October. The findings of this analysis will help to inform decisions regarding national climate policy including how to meet the very challenging emissions targets that have been set for Ireland.