Teagasc Climate Action Strategy - Sustainability Digital Platform

Supported by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM), Teagasc in co-operation with the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) and Bord Bia is building a new digital platform to facilitate a robust whole farm sustainability assessment and 'counting' of carbon emissions and removals

Urgent action is needed in all countries and sectors including agriculture to reduce emissions, increase carbon removals/sequestration and prepare to adapt to the changing climate. The world also faces food and nutrition, energy, and biodiversity crises, and our actions must deal with all these challenges in a co-ordinated manner. Agriculture must therefore maintain/increase food production, reduce emissions, increase sequestration, improve biodiversity and contribute to energy security, whilst also ensuring economic and social sustainability.

Teagasc is significantly increasing its resources devoted to climate related research and knowledge transfer.

The three key pillars of the new Climate Action Strategy are:

• A Signpost Advisory Programme
• A Sustainability Digital Platform
• A Virtual National Centre for Agri-food Climate Research and Innovation

Sustainability Digital Platform

The Sustainability Digital Platf orm is a major digital resource to allow farmers ‘count’ carbon emissions and sequestrati on on their farm, and its decision support capability allows advisors work with farmers to develop tailored sustainability plans and track progress.

This platform will support the new Signpost Advisory Programme and allow each farmer, and their advisor, to understand their current emissions and removals profiles. The real time data analysis will help plan, explore opportunities and prioritise actions to reduce emissions and enhance removals.

Jonathan Herron and Siobhan Kavanagh, Teagasc, describe the new Teagasc Sustainability Digital Platform and explain how it will support the new Signpost Advisory Programme and allow each farmer, and their advisor, to understand their current emissions and removals profiles.

Key Principles of the Sustainability Digital Platform

• Maximise use of existing databases in the agri-sector
• Subject to farmer’s permission - opt in
• No duplication – one source of truth
• Verified data
• Scientific oversight

Sustainability Digital Platform Milestones 

Q1 - 2023 Launch Pilot Action Planner
Q2 - 2023 Updated Dairy & Beef Models
Q4 - 2023 Incorporation of Sheep Model
Q3 - 2024 Incorporation of Tillage Model
Q4 - 2024 Incorporation of Pig Model
Launch of Version 2 Incorporation of Spatial Information, Soil, Forestry and Biodiversity Mapping
Launch Version 3 to include Soil Carbon
Continued refinement of Sustainability Digital Platform deployed for both Agriculture & Land Use and Land Use Change plus Forestry

For more information and to read the Climate Action Strategy document visit www.teagasc.ie/environment/climate-action/