Rewarding farmers for carbon sequestration, developing a climate-neutral beef label and increasing the tillage area will help create more climate-resilient food systems in Ireland.
Those are among the recommendations from a “deep demonstration project” involving the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) and EIT Climate-KIC.
The innovation agency, supported by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology, works across Europe and beyond to develop solutions for climate actions and support the implementation of those measures.
Under Ireland’s Climate Action Plan, emissions from agriculture must reduce by 25% by 2030, while the food system must be climate neutral by 2050.
“There is a huge gap and an incredibly difficult, messy gap between some of those targets and climate ambition that we know we somehow have to meet, in order to collectively survive and thrive, and where we’re at,” Kirsten Dunlop, chief executive of EIT Climate-KIC told Agriland.
Given that 37% of farms in Ireland were in debt in 2021, Dunlop acknowledged that it is not just as simple as talking about farmers transitioning to more sustainable practices.
She said what is required is “an integrated effort” and bringing a lot of solutions together with financial and market incentives, education and community support.
Beef label
The project involving EIT Climate-KIC and DAFM has identified seven “flagship innovation areas” which could translate into almost 200 projects.
There are four agricultural innovation areas earmarked for the period up to 2030, as follows:
- Diversify incomes through carbon farming and nature credit frameworks: Support a just transition for primary producers by rewarding carbon sequestration and biodiversity practices in alignment with EU frameworks;
- Certified climate-neutral beef production: Explore the potential to create a label for producing and demonstrating climate neutrality, starting with suckler beef, and scaling to other beef systems;
- Engage the dairy sector to define and set a baseline for sustainable dairy production, and explore what the transition would concretely mean for dairy farmers and the dairy industry;
- Grow and diversify the tillage sector. Increase tillage areas, introduce multi-crop farms, and strengthen collaboration with beef and dairy to reduce chemical fertilisers and increase the amount of homegrown protein for food and feed.
The project has highlighted a further three innovation areas that are to be focused on up to 2050:
- Include a broad range of communities and experts (younger generations, consumers, other sectors) to shape the future of Irish food systems;
- Innovation and investment in new value chains such as alternative proteins (for both human food and as feed additives) and feed additives that deliver methane reduction;
- Circular bioeconomy models in regions with multiple value chains, including regenerative and local food production, industrial symbiosis and societal shifts to increase healthier diets and design waste out of food production.
“It’s about trying to make sure that there are incentives to farm in a way that becomes a virtuous part of the solution to living sustainably and to diets that are balanced and to what we call ecosystem services, which is basically trying to replicate what nature does,” Dunlop said.
She said that a certification scheme, such as a new label for beef, could help farmers find new markets by demonstrating what sustainability actions they are taking to consumers.
“It’s really about just trying to bring a system of effects together, make it easier for anybody trying to exercise their livelihood to take what they do and everybody they depend on and who depends on them on a journey together,” she added.
Dunlop stressed that farmers “have to be listened to” as “there is so much knowledge and expertise in how people have treated land and treated livestock for centuries”.
Challenges
Among the obstacles for Irish farmers to become more sustainable are the “mixed messages” on environmental measures.
“That’s part of the problem, that a lot of the existing initiatives in the agri-food sector are all individual, they’re all good – well, most of them are good, but they are fragmented.
“So if you are sitting with the real-world problem of being on the land, trying to deal with all sorts of things, which way do you go?
“That’s one of the reasons why it’s so important to kind of create this much more single unifying framework to help get a sense of these things all help each other,” Dunlop said.
She added that some farmers, particularly those who are part-time, may not have the time to invest in new measures and will need support.
The project identified the need to build up community awareness of what is happening in agriculture as the sector accounts for 37% of Ireland’s emissions according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
“It’s not a farmer problem. It’s an everyone problem and an everyone opportunity.
“It’s an enormous opportunity for Ireland also to lead the way, as it’s done so often, in the world,” Dunlop said.
Conference
As part of a week of community events in Ireland at the end of September, EIT Climate-KIC will host a conference on how to achieve sustainable food systems in Ireland and beyond in the O’Reilly Hall in Dublin on September 28.
Delegates will also hear about progress and activities from the deep demonstration partnership.
“We are really hoping with this event to shine a big celebratory spotlight on what’s happening in Ireland. A big spotlight on what’s what the opportunities are for everybody.
“And also the role that Ireland is playing in relationship to Europe’s policy about trying to really show a way in Europe that this can be done, equitably and with participation, and in a just and dialogue-based way, rather than just rampant market mechanisms where you throw a lot of money at the problem and hope it works out,” Dunlop said.