Significant investment over a “longer term” will be needed to hit the government’s tillage ambitions of 400,000ha by 2030, according to Macra.
A succession scheme and an increase in the number of new entrants and young farmers are also key factors that need to be in place to ensure the government’s targets will be met.
Elaine Houlihan, Macra president, said that if the Minister of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue, is “serious about the targets” then investment needs to be earmarked in the next budget.
Houlihan believes there are young farmers currently looking for opportunities in the tillage sector.
She said Macra has put forward a number of measures to the Tillage Food Vision Group to help achieve the “desired targets” for the sector.
The Food Vision Tillage Group was tasked by Minister McConalogue to provide a detailed plan of how it can boost the tillage area to 400,000ha by 2030.
The group is required to provide the plan by the end of July with a final plan to be submitted during the final quarter of 2023.
Succession and tillage investment
According to Macra the issue of farm succession is crucial to ensuing to the bigger picture in relation to the government’s ambitions.
It believes a key component of any succession programme must ensure that a retiring farmer has guaranteed financial security.
New entrants also need to be “supported to enter the sector” and if these key measures can be met then this will in turn increase land access and availability to young, trained farmers.
But although Houlihan acknowledges that young farmers may be looking for opportunities, she said there is no doubt that the “major barrier is still access to land”.
According to Macra, its Land Mobility Service has been involved in a number of arrangements in relation to tillage including share farming agreements.
“A five-year lease has become the new conacre with landowners and other parties purely focused on price rather than sustainability or farm care targeting that space.
“Encouraging income tax relief to landowners for leases of a minimum of seven years deserves consideration. Longer leases in tillage – seven years or more – allows for better rotation planning and agronomics,” it stated.