Only 28% of the land targeted for afforestation was actually planted in 2022, making forestry the Department of Agriculture’s poorest performing area, according to a new public service performance report.

The Department planned on seeing 8,000ha of forestry planted last year, but only 2,273ha of this target was actually planted.

This was up marginally on the 2,016ha afforested in 2021 but below the 2,434ha planted in 2020.

TB and Bord Bia

The overall number of bovine TB tests carried out reached 9.58m, which was higher than the target the Department had set for them.

Bord Bia inspections for the Sustainable Beef and Lamb Assurance Scheme (SBLAS) also fell short of the year’s targets.

Only 32,000 SBLAS farm inspections were carried out - 5,000 below the target that had been set.

ANC

The Department paid out Area of Natural Constraints (ANC) scheme payments to 2.4% fewer farmers than it had targeted.

It had planned on getting ANC paid to 99,000, but only 96,593 farmers actually applied and were paid.

Value up

Overall, it was reported that the value of primary agriculture at the prices received by farmers rose from €9.6bn to €12bn.

The report shows that the value of exports increased, driven by higher dairy prices, although all categories of agri-food exports were up.