Teagasc’s advisory service completed a total of 46,025 applications in 2021, including 41,000 for the basic payment scheme, 4,000 for a derogation and 1,025 for the Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS).
Teagasc published its annual report and financial statements for 2021 today (Tuesday, October 4), which show a breakdown of the organisation’s advisory, education and research activities.
The reports outline that a total of 3,310 students participated on Teagasc education courses in 2021, between the organisation’s colleges and education centres. In addition to this, five 25-hour organic principles courses were delivered by the organic specialist team that year.
A number of Knowledge Transfer Initiatives (KTIs) were also launched last year according to the statements. These include the Future Beef Programme and the DairyBeef500 Programme, which aimed to support suckler beef production and dairy calf-to-beef production respectively.
Phase two of the multi-year Grass10 Programme was also developed last year, which aimed to increase the amount of grass utilised on livestock farms per year.
The statements also refer to a number of environmental tools which were developed by Teagasc for use by farmers, such as the nitrogen use efficiency calculator and the forest carbon tool. Both of these were created to assist landowners in establishing how much carbon can be sequestered by woodlands.
Teagasc’s research
Looking to research activities in that year, €26 million in external research funding was secured by Teagasc which marked a significant increase on the €18 million received in 2020.
Statements also show that Teagasc’s technology transfer office was involved in the development of five new products and services that were launched in 2021, as a result of technology licensing from the organisation.
Speaking about the activities completed within the time frame, Prof. Frank O’Mara, director of Teagasc said:
“We had a blend of remote working and staff attending at their place of work, and using both, allowed us to deliver a full research, advisory and education programme during 2021.”