Irish tillage farmers should look at the feasibility of crop insurance as a future safety net option for the sector.
They can’t continue to go cap-in-hand to the government, every time we get a poor growing season.
The reality is that crop insurance works in countries like the United States, so there is no reason why a similar system cannot work in this part of the world.
Ireland is not the only country to experience extremes of weather. Here, excessive rain is, invariably, the issue. In the rest of the world, drought can wreak untold damage on growing crops.
The question then becomes the following – who pays?
Crop insurance
The obvious vehicle to promote a debate on crop insurance is the Food Vision Tillage Group. Its membership can both endorse the principle involved, and come up with proposals on how best to pay for it all.
Obvious contributors in this regard include the European Union and the Irish government.
But should Irish growers also be included in the funding mix? I think so, on the basis that a bespoke scheme for Irish tillage can be delivered.
The proposed measure would add to the support schemes already in place through the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). It would only kick-in when specific crop failures can be identified.
Many people are of the opinion that the Irish tillage sector must be expanded. This principle is already enshrined within the government’s response to climate change.
This will only happen if tillage farmers have certainty that they can survive the ebbs and flows of the Irish weather.
The events of the last 24 months make this point perfectly. Harvest 2022 was one of the best on record. Fast forward 12 months, and the polar opposite scenario was unfolding; disappointing yields and extremely weak farm gate prices.
In my opinion, a crop insurance scheme would take the extremes out of the tillage equation, giving growers an opportunity to plan for the future with a degree of certainty.
So much for the future – what about the here and now?
There has been a general welcome for the €7 million tillage support scheme, recently confirmed by the agriculture minister.
Charlie McConalogue gets a fair amount of stick from any number of agri stakeholder groups on an almost daily basis. So it’s only right that he should get the plaudit, when that extra mile is taken on behalf of Irish farmers.