Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 14 July 2022
61. Deputy Martin Browne asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the measures that he plans to introduce to support farmers in meeting climate action sectoral targets; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38540/22]
View answerAs the Deputy may be aware, all sectors of the economy have been set with challenging targets in order to achieve the economy wide 51% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. The agriculture sector will need to reduce emissions by between 22% and 30% by 2030, this will require transformational change across each one of our 140,000 family farms. I have been clear that a whole-of-sector, whole-of-government approach will be needed to achieve our objectives. The target is challenging but I will support our farm families every step of this process.
In terms of public supports, the CAP Strategic Plan which is currently going through the approval process in Brussels will undoubtedly be a key pillar of the State's climate action support. The CAP Strategic Plan will provide €9.8bn of support the economic, environmental and social sustainability for farmers and rural communities.
Key elements of this plan include:
- a new Eco-scheme. This scheme has a number of climate- and environment-focused farming practices, which will be open to all farmers. These include practices aimed at reducing chemical nitrogen usage, increasing tree planting, increasing nature- and biodiversity-rich land areas and encouraging extensive livestock production;
- an ambitious new Pillar 2 environmental scheme, the AECM, targeted at 50,000 participants. This will be underpinned by a greater focus on results-based actions and on collective actions aimed at achieving landscape-scale benefits;
- an Organic Farming Scheme aimed at more than tripling the area of agricultural land that is farmed organically;
- A suckler carbon efficiency scheme which will contribute to the objective of early finishing times of our prime beef cattle. This scheme will reward suckler farmers with a payment of €150/cow on the first 10 cows which compares to €90/cow for the outgoing BDGP.
- A revised TAMS scheme which provides more capital funding for on-farm investment than the preceding scheme and which will have increased incentives for environmental investments including renewable energy;
In addition, I established two Food Vision 2030 working groups on dairy on beef and sheepmeat which will set out a clear roadmap to enable the sectors reduce emissions. Any additional public supports required to assist with the transformation in agriculture will be set out in the final version of these documents which are expected to finalised this year. These will then be considered by Government.
My colleague Minister of State Pippa Hackett is also developing a new National Forestry Strategy and Forestry Programme which are currently the subject of detailed public consultation. Our aim is to have these concluded and in place for the start of 2023 with an increased set of incentives to attract farmers and landowners to consider planting trees which is a key part of our climate actions.
I will work with industry to ensure that their sustainability payment supports fully align with our public supports. By taking this coordinated approach, I am confident the sector will be able to achieve its climate objectives.
