Ireland lags way behind on organic land

Ireland is almost bottom of the pile in the EU-28 when it comes to the percentage of land devoted to organic production. Just 1.8% of all agricultural land in this country is used for organic farming, according to figures from IFOAM, the European umbrella organisation for organic food and farming.

This puts it equal to Romania as having the second-lowest percentage of land in organic production. Only the island of Malta has less organic land at 0.3% (61ha).

Some 73,000ha of land in Ireland is organic. The vast majority (93.7%) of this land is under grass, accounting for 68,409ha, while the remaining land is under 4,569ha of arable crops and 59ha of permanent crops.

The IFOAM figures record organic land use from 2007 to 2015, which showed a steady growth in organic land area in Ireland. It rose from 40,000ha in 2007 to 73,000ha in 2015, with the biggest jump in land area recorded in 2014.

Ireland’s organic area should increase by 40% later this year as 500 new organic entrants complete their two-year conversion period next month. This will result in organic farmer numbers in Ireland increasing from 1,300 to 1,800.

Austria has the highest percentage of agricultural land devoted to organic farming in the EU-28, with 21.3% of its land or 554,000ha in organic farming. Sweden (16.9%), Estonia (16.3%) and Latvia (12.8%) follow Austria in the ranking.

However in terms of total land area under organic production, the larger countries dominate. Spain is top of the pile, accounting for 1.97m ha.

Italy has 1.49m ha in organic farming, followed by France on 1.38m ha and Germany on 1.09m ha. The EU-28 as a whole has 11.2m ha of organic land, with 46% under grass, 42.4% under arable crops and 11% under permanent crops.

The Organic Farming Scheme will not be reopening any time soon, despite attracting more new applicants than any scheme before, the Department has told the Irish Farmers Journal. The scheme is co-funded by the Department and Rural Development Programme.

“The budget allocated to the new scheme in Ireland’s Rural Development Programme has been fully committed and all targets set for the scheme within the RDP have already been achieved,” a spokesperson said.