Teagasc will now focus on promoting measures it has identified to combat climate change on farms, including securing new supports for low-emission slurry and fertiliser spreading, the agency’s director Gerry Boyle told a recent Oirechtas hearing.“There has to be a suite of incentives for farmers to adopt some of the measures that we’ve identified,” he said, highlighting the replacement of CAN fertilisers with protected urea and the use of trailing shoes or injectors for slurry spreading. He described both technologies as “quick wins” based on the latest review of all possible measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from farming and their cost (see ifj.ie/teagasc).
Teagasc will now focus on promoting measures it has identified to combat climate change on farms, including securing new supports for low-emission slurry and fertiliser spreading, the agency’s director Gerry Boyle told a recent Oirechtas hearing.
“There has to be a suite of incentives for farmers to adopt some of the measures that we’ve identified,” he said, highlighting the replacement of CAN fertilisers with protected urea and the use of trailing shoes or injectors for slurry spreading. He described both technologies as “quick wins” based on the latest review of all possible measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from farming and their cost (see ifj.ie/teagasc).
Teagasc is now in discussions with the Department of Agriculture to find ways of encouraging more farmers to take up such measures, “but they will not be sufficient to offset the trajectory in terms of cow numbers” and meet Ireland’s greenhouse gas obligations by 2030, Boyle warned. “This is the reality and it is something that has to be faced up to,” he added. “That is a dilemma for the industry.”
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