The president of the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) has described a €12 million tillage support package, announced by the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, as “a small step in the right direction”.
Charlie McConalogue will seek approval for the scheme to encourage tillage farmers to grow more crops this year when he brings it before Cabinet today (Tuesday, March 22).
It aims to support the production of more native crops and crops with a low demand for chemical fertiliser.
The support package, along with the recently established National Fodder and Food Security Committee, forms part of the government response to the impact of the war in Ukraine on food security and supply chains.
Tillage
IFA president Tim Cullinan said that the tillage scheme “is a small step towards encouraging more grain output in 2022”.
However, he noted that the target of an extra 25,000ha of grain is “very modest”.
“With full take up, it would be an increase of less than 10% on what was grown last year, which was approximately 300,000ha,” he said.
“This scheme, along with the establishment of the Food Security and Fodder Committee, is not going to address the real issue, which is the cost and availability of inputs,” Cullinan outlined.
IFA Tillage Committee chair Kieran McEvoy said that “tillage farmers will be stretched to produce what they normally do, never mind increase the land planted”.
He explained that due to the increase in agricultural diesel prices, it will cost an extra €100/ha to produce grain.
“Farmers need more cuts in excise duty and in the carbon tax. It’s critical that sufficient agri-diesel supplies are available during the key spring and summer months when planting and harvesting of crops takes place.
“The tillage sector is in a position to supply more grain and feedstuffs for the livestock sector this year and into the future to help offset some of the shortages anticipated in supply chains following the war in Ukraine.
“As it stands, only 7.5% of the Irish agricultural area is devoted to crop production. It’s critically important that any further decline is halted and future policy decisions must aim to restore the cropped area to at least 11% of the agricultural land area,” McEvoy concluded.