The Food Vision Tillage Group is to put forward a proposal for an “income stabilisation scheme” specifically for tillage farmers to the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue.
According to members of the group Minister McConalogue, has already indicated that this measure could be considered and has asked for full details of a potential scheme to be developed.
Food Vision Tillage Group chair, Matt Dempsey, said that the proposed income stabilisation scheme would mirror similar support measures currently operating in the United States.
Dempsey did not specify if the group would include a potential crop insurance measure as part of the scheme but he did confirm that a number of options are currently under consideration.
“The full detail has yet to be worked through.
“Our plan is to publish the final Food Vision Tillage Group report before the end of March this year,” he added.
Dempsey delivered the key note address to the 2024 Ulster Arable Society (UAS) conference yesterday (Thursday, January 24 ) in Northern Ireland.
During his speech at the conference, which took place in CAFRE’s Greenmount Campus, he highlighted the extremely low carbon footprint of the tillage sector.
He said current figures indicate that greenhouse gas emission values linked to crop production are just 15% of the rate for dairy farms and 25% of that for beef farms.
“On that basis alone, tillage farmers would be justified in receiving an area payment of between €75 and €100/ac,” according to Dempsey.
He also underlined that the Irish government is committed to supporting schemes that underpin a sustained tillage area of 400,000ha.
“The money is there to help make this happen,” he told the audience.
Food Vision Tillage Group
According to Dempsey among the proposals that will be put forwarded by the Food Vision Tillage Group include calls for the establishment of an oilseed rape crushing plant in Ireland and the provision of capital support measures to facilitate the greater use of “home grown’” beans in compound feed rations.
He envisages that the government will continue to support the Tillage Incentive Scheme as a means of further boosting the area sown out under out under crops.
But Dempsey also emphasised at Greenmount that there is a need to encourage the spreading of manures produced on dairy farms on tillage land.
He said: “This has to happen.
“But it must be more than a paper acres exercise. A scheme must be developed to allow the actual recording of slurry, originating from dairy farms, that is subsequently spread on arable ground.”
According to Dempsey ensuring that farmers maximise the value of the crops they are growing, must be another priority for the tillage sector.
He believes this should include a greater focus on a range of crops, including: malting barley, gluten-free oats, organic oats plus peas and beans.
One positive trend that he applauded yesterday were the major strides that have been made by Ireland’s distilling sectors over recent years.
Dempsey believes there is a major opportunity for Irish growers here because many of the businesses which operate in this sector are French-owned.
Dempsey added: “Currently, a significant quantity of imported maize is included in many Irish distilling processes.
“There is potential to replace these imports with Irish wheat.
“A Teagasc research project is now looking at the feasibility of this approach.”