Teagasc REPS Conference tackles Climate Change

A comprehensive research programme carefully focused on reducing greenhouse gas emissions while maintaining productivity is currently underway at Teagasc. Speaking on the issue of climate change at the Teagasc National REPS conference in Tullamore, today, Thursday, 6 November, Teagasc Director, Professor Gerry Boyle said;”We have identified a clear relationship between practices that increase farming efficiency and reducing emissions. This can be achieved through better grassland management, improving nitrogen fertilizer efficiency and breeding higher yielding animals.”

In his address to the REPS conference, Professor John Sweeney from NUI Maynooth said that the impacts of climate change globally on agriculture and food production are likely to be considerable. He said that Irish agriculture faces several challenges in the next few decades if it is to remain competitive, as global climate change accelerates. However he said that Irish agriculture will be capable of adapting and most of the current crops will remain viable. For the key dairying sector, a range of response options exists which should mean the continuing viability and profitability of this sector. Professor Sweeney said that there is logic in using REPS as an instrument to adapt to climate change and as a means of protecting the competitive position of Irish agriculture during times when more drastic pressures will adversely affect the productivity of neighbouring countries, as well as raising issues of food security at a more global level.

Dr Gary Lanigan from the Teagasc Environmental Research Centre outlined how Ireland is unique among the EU countries in that 26.5% of greenhouse gas emissions originate in agriculture with these emissions dominated by methane and nitrous oxide. He said that agriculture emissions have declined slightly since 1990, unlike emissions from other sectors of the economy. Dr Lanigan said there is a conflict between the requirements for food security and increased food production on the one hand, and reduced emissions from agriculture on the other hand. He pointed out that the world population is set to increase to 9 billion by 2050 and that demand for food will double in this period making it essential to maintain high productivity. He warned that reductions in Irish agricultural output would simply be balanced by increased production elsewhere and considering the comparative greenhouse gas efficiency of Irish agriculture, the net effect could be an increase in global agriculture emissions.

Concluding he said that through more efficient use of nitrogen, more efficient higher yielding animals, extended grazing seasons and improved grass quality, improved land management and the inclusion of forestry, may allow Ireland to meet its commitments on future emissions targets without sacrificing productivity.

At the conference Professor Alan Mathews from Trinity College spoke on the European Rural Development Policy and the implications for Agri-Environmental schemes. He outlined how further modifications to the Rural Development Regulations have been proposed by the European Commission in the context of the CAP ‘health check’, which are currently under negotiation. He said that these changes include expanding the remit of rural development policy to respond to new and ongoing challenges of risk management, climate change, water management and biodiversity. He said that the European Commission proposed that modulation be extended to provide the funding for these new measures. He advised that a significant redirection of funding towards agri- environment payments and less favoured area payments would seem the most promising route to defending the CAP budget in the current debate on EU budget priorities.