One of the key issues that will dominate 2024 for Ireland’s farming communities is “water quality”, according to the president of the Irish Co-operative Organisation Society (ICOS).
The Co. Tipperary dairy farmer, Edward Carr – who took up the role of president of ICOS in 2023 – said that it is crucially important that water quality is “stabilised” as part of Ireland’s campaign to retain a nitrates derogation, after the current derogation expires on January 1, 2026.
He believes that Irish farmers are completely committed to improving water quality and protecting the environment.
“There are big challenges and every farmer recognises that – there are environmental issues, and there are constraints and that is a daily factor of life now, but farmers have embraced a range of actions and adopted new initiatives – they have not stood still when it comes to the environment and what is being asked of them.
“Farmers know they have to get it right when it comes to water quality not only because it is the key to securing another nitrates derogation but because that is what we all want to do – we want to improve water quality and we are also working hard on climate change challenges.
“We’re on course to achieve the 2030 emission reduction targets for agriculture, and we’re probably the only industry in Ireland that’s going to come anywhere near achieving that,” Carr added.
Ireland, Denmark, and the Netherlands are currently the only EU member states to have a nitrates derogation.
Denmark’s derogation permitting a maximum stocking rate of 230 kg [of organic nitrogen (N)/ha] expires in July 2024, and the country is currently involved in discussions about an extension to the derogation.
Meanwhile, the Netherlands’ derogation is set to be phased out by the end of 2025.
Next year, the Netherlands will be permitted a maximum stocking rate of up to 210 kg N/ha in “nutrient polluted areas” and 230 kg N/ha in other areas.
These values are set to drop further in 2025, and there will be no derogation in place in the Netherlands after December 2025.
According to Carr, this change in direction across Europe highlights why water quality will play such a key role in Ireland’s next discussions to secure a new nitrates derogation.
But, in the first instance he said that the reduction in the maximum limit for derogation farmers to 220 kg N/ha from today (January 1, 2024) will create significant challenges for some.
“There will clearly be consequences that will be felt right across agriculture, because it will impact on family farms, and it is what those implications will be in 2024 that we now have to prepare for,” he warned.
According to Carr, 2023 was a very difficult year for many farming families – for dairy farmers the drop in milk prices was hard to bear coming off record prices the year before, across the board input prices remained stubbornly high in some areas, and weather conditions proved frustrating throughout the year.
On top of that, the president of ICOS said many farmers felt that there was an air of negativity around farming in relation to environmental challenges.
Carr hopes that 2024 will be a more positive year for farming communities on a number of fronts.
“It would be nice for farmers to get the recognition they deserve in 2024 for the work they do, for what they produce and for the changes they are making to protect the environment.
“Yes, there are challenges and we all have to work together to meet those challenges, but I am hoping that it will be a positive year for farmers. We saw coming towards the end of 2023 how commodity markets were improving, and that should be a good sign for the year ahead,” he added.