The tillage sector has always been at the very heart of Irish agriculture, but ensuring this remains the case has become a major challenge.
The good news is that numerous strands of government thinking and sectoral endeavour should come together in a coherent manner over the next day or so, and Budget 2025 will be at the heart of all these processes.
This is what every tillage farmer in the country will be hoping for.
But, let’s be honest, putting theory into practice doesn’t always happen, and there is always the ‘Law of Unintended Consequences’ to be factored in as well.
Consider the facts – tillage is at the very heart of Ireland’s climate change strategy, while the report from the Food Vision Tillage Group has yet to receive any form of official government response – up to this point, at least.
The Climate Action Plan (CAP) references a 400,000ha target area for Irish tillage. This figure constitutes an approximate 25% growth in the current scope of the industry.
Meanwhile, the Vision Group was specifically commissioned by Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue, to specifically address the structural and other challenges facing the tillage sector.
So, on that basis alone, the minister is honour bound to actively address the recommendations contained with the group’s final report.
Tillage sector
Budget 2025 would seem the obvious vehicle to allow this happen.
The key theme underpinned by the CAP and the report from the vision group is the need to secure sustainable growth within the tillage sector.
And if expansion is to be secured within any industry, investment for the future will be the key driver.
So, here comes the fundamental reality – tillage farmers cannot afford to invest in their businesses, if they are haemorrhaging money.
This is the unfortunate scenario playing out across the crops’ sector at the present time. Tillage farmers are looking down the barrel of two very challenging years: 2022/2023 and 2023/2024.
But there is another reality within all of this, which must be addressed, governments don’t control the weather and they have even less control over international commodity markets.
However, they can take steps to cushion the blows of these ‘storms’ when they appear on the horizon.
At the end of the day, all of this comes down to money.
Minister McConalogue has already indicated that €30 million will be available to tillage in 2024 in recognition of the atrocious growing conditions that confronted the industry over the past 12 months.
But, this has got to be the starting point of a coherent response from government to the needs of tillage farmers.
Funding over a five-year period, at least, must be available to growers. And this strategic support must address the needs that have been identified across the entire scope of tillage farming in Ireland.
A sustainable will only be achieved on the back of farmers growing crops in the most efficient way possible.