The Agricultural Science Association (ASA) Annual Conference will return this week for the first time since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The event will take place on Thursday of this week (September 8) at the Lyrath Estate Hotel in Kilkenny.
The theme of the conference is ‘science at the forefront of agricultural sustainability’.
The event will see three panels assembled from the industrial and research sectors, which will include professor John Roche, the chief science advisor for New Zealand’s Ministry for Primary Industries, which includes the country’s agriculture portfolio.
Roche is a native of Co. Kerry and a graduate of Teagasc Moorepark.
The three sessions will look at Irish, European and international perspectives on the role of science in sustainable agriculture, and will be complemented by papers from the inaugural ASA communications fellow, Prof. Laurence Shallo.
The meeting will also be addressed by Minister for Foreign Affairs (and former minister for agriculture) Simon Coveney.
George Ramsbottom, president of the ASA, said: “Agricultural scientists are at the forefront of the drive to lower agricultural emissions.
“The target set for Irish agricultural is a 25% reduction by 2030. Our annual conference will allow attendees to learn about the science-based initiatives being adopted in Europe and globally to meet this target,” Ramsbottom remarked.
Organisers have said that the highlight of the event will be the address from John Roche.
He will outline New Zealand’s government’s aim of preventing further degradation of waterways and wetlands and to return those that have been degraded to a healthy state within the next 25 to 30 years.
He will also provide insight into New Zealand’s climate change mitigation legislation, which treats biogenic methane differently from other greenhouse gases (GHGs).
The country has brought forward legislation that recognises the different warming potentials and the different lifetimes of the different GHGs in the atmosphere.
The law recognises that, although methane is a potent GHG, biogenic methane from ruminant animals, rice paddies, and natural wetlands is very different to fossil fuel-derived gases and has a short half-life of about 10-15 years.
The aim of the legislation is to enable New Zealand to implement “clear and stable” climate change policies.
The country aims to reduce net emissions of all GHGs (except biogenic methane) to zero by 2050, and to reduce emissions of biogenic methane to 24% to 47% below 2017 levels by 2050, and by 10% by 2030.
Attendees at the ASA Annual Conference will hear all about this at the all-day event on Thursday.