“No farmer should be left behind” in the implementation of the 2022 to 2030 Climate Action Strategy, Sinn Féin MEP Chris McManus has said.
The Midlands Northwest representative met with a Teagasc delegation this week to discuss the plan, which McManus welcomed cautiously.
He stated that he has some concerns around how farmers will be enabled to take effective climate action, adding that they will need proper connectivity and resources to do so.
“We need to provide farmers with better connectivity and resources to enable more precise and efficient farming, relieving pressure on soils.
“Access to technology will be the game changer when it comes to lowering on-farm emissions,” he stated.
McManus also said that the model for restoring biodiversity must work in tandem with the farmers’ primary job “of producing nutritious food for us all”, and added that they must be rewarded for taking part in it.
“Climate change is real, biodiversity loss is real. Family farmers are certainly vulnerable to both but ill-thought out measures are just as damaging.
“I welcome Teagasc’s comments that in the context of the nature restoration law, partial rewetting instead of full rewetting, will be considered.
“The balance between restoration and production is a delicate one and we must always remember that this is family farmers’ livelihoods we are talking about,” said the MEP.
McManus said he was also glad to hear that “there are no plans to individualise the 25% national emissions reduction target to farmers”.
“This should at least allow a number of farmers to breathe a temporary sigh of relief,” he concluded.
In other news from the European Parliament this week, MEPs on the Agriculture Committee said that all mineral fertilisers apart from those coming from Russia and Belarus should continue to be exempt from import duties.
This should be done in the interest of stabilising prices they said, during a discussion on a draft text outlining the parliament’s response to a communication on fertiliser from the commission.
In November, the commission published a communication document outlining how it plans to tackle rising fertiliser costs.
One of the document’s suggestions was that public authorities could purchase fertilisers and offer them at a lower price to farmers.
Funds generated from capping the profits of electricity companies could also be used for national support schemes, it suggested.
The commission is also to examine the possibility of using the EU agricultural reserve fund, worth €450 million, to help farmers impacted by high input costs.