What is being described as a “rally” of farmers and other stakeholders in the dairy sector will take place in Bandon, Co. Cork next week to call for the retention of the nitrates derogation at its current level.
The rally will begin at 7:30p.m in the town next Thursday (July 13). It is organised by the local Cork Central Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) executive, but farmers from other farm organisations, as well as representatives from the dairy processing sector and co-operatives, are also invited to attend.
It is understood that the action will feature tractors and milk lorries, as well as people on foot. The rally is set to begin and end at the mart in Bandon.
The rally is in response to a number of recent developments, most notably a report by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on water quality.
The results of this report mean that large areas of the country will see a reduction in the current nitrates derogation limit from 250kg of organic nitrogen (N) per hectare down to 220kgN/ha.
Speaking to Agriland, Conor O’Leary, the IFA Cork Central chairperson, said that farmers in derogation have “undertaken every ask of us for the past 15 years”.
“At this point the threat to move [the derogation] to 220 based on one year’s results is largely unfair,” he added, saying that measures implemented by farmers – and measures yet to be implemented – have not been allowed play out yet.
“The economic hit to our part of the world is just immense… We want to make the point that where we have derogation farms, based on the amount of work derogation farmers have undertaken…that we believe that derogation farms are actually in the areas that will show improvements [in water quality].”
He acknowledged that there was some non-compliance with nitrates rules, saying: “We’re at a point in time where we can’t accept any incorrect leakage of nitrates.”
While O’Leary said that he believes that the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine is on the side of farmers, he also said that department officials have not been strong enough in their engagement with the European Commission.
The IFA representative said that the Irish dairy production system is “fundamentally different” from a European system, and that this is not realised by the commission authorities.
“We need the commission to come here and see what we do because it is very, very different.”
O’Leary said that there was other measures by which savings in nitrates emissions to water can be addressed rather than reducing the derogation, such a more strategic application.
“We can’t get it out of our minds that this [the derogation reduction] is being undertaken. This isn’t going to help water quality. It hits the compliant rather than the non-compliant,” he commented.
He added: “Our rally is a push to say we are here, that we feel we are important to the community… We need this thing to go right. There’s other things we can and will do. We’ve done everything we’ve been asked to do to date.
“We’re trying to put it open to everybody. It’s not just our [IFA] protest. It’s a farmers’ protest,” O’Leary said.