MEASURE

Modelling Estimates for Agricultural Sustainability Using Real Evidence

Aim

To identify and address key data and modelling gaps relating to the sustainability of Irish agriculture.

In so doing, it will strengthen Ireland’s capacity to provide nationally representative evidence of farm level sustainability across systems.

MEASURE will serve several needs:

1. Support policy makers using real data in developing, evaluating and modifying policy to deliver a more sustainable agricultural sector.
2. Cement Ireland’s credentials as a leader in sustainable food systems, by providing evidence of the agricultural sector’s sustainability performance in the form of independently developed metrics of economic, environmental and social sustainability across systems.
3. Provide industry stakeholders with data that will improve farm sustainability decision making.
4. Supply stakeholders, particularly policy makers, with modelling insights as to how future policy choices may impact on farm evolution, resilience and sustainability performance.
5. Trial new methods of data collection and sharing, delivering efficiencies and providing more detailed evidence of farm level sustainability.
6. Improve data visualisation through the development of farm sustainability dashboards.

MEASURE will support the delivery of a range of national and international strategic objectives of interest to agriculture and wider society, including the UN SDGs, European Green Deal and Farm to Fork, and national level objectives as set out in Food Vision 2030, Ag Climatise and the Climate Action Plan 2023.

The sustainability data ambitions of the Teagasc National Farm Survey (NFS), central to the success of this project, are reflective of the transition from the EU Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) to the Farm Sustainability Network (FSDN) across Member States, and Ireland’s objective to be at the forefront of sustainable food systems. MEASURE will support the assessment of Ireland's CAP Strategic Plan and subsequent refinement and facilitate the more targeted delivery of CAP support, allowing for the achievement of a wider range of sustainability goals.

Project Duration: 4 years
Co-ordinator: Emma Dillon Emma.Dillon@teagasc.ie
Partner: University College Dublin

Funding

MEASURE is funded by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, 2023 Thematic Research Call.