Tillage Day: crops must be attractive for young people

“If you have an aptitude for crop science, you have an opportunity here,” was the message from president of the Irish Seed Trade Association Tim O’Donovan to young people at Tillage Day.

With a positive atmosphere in the crowded room, the final session of the day regarding the future direction of the tillage sector generated a lot of conversation.

Tim explained that when discussing the future of tillage, we need to plan for the long term.

“We need to be training young people going forward because they’re the people that will drive it [the tillage sector] on. Growers and their children need positive signals [from the government].

A five-year scheme is not something that will attract people to the sector.”

Viable incomes

As a member of the Food Vision tillage group, Tim would like to see some of the recommendations acted upon. In the short term, this is a number of schemes to ensure tillage incomes remain viable.

In the medium term, adding value to native Irish grains needs to be explored.

Finally, in the long term, it must be ensured that the Department, Teagasc, and universities are well-funded to improve crop research and to bring through more young people into tillage.

John Dunne of Goldcrop was positive about the future. “We have an industry full of passionate people, they wouldn’t be at it if they weren’t because there’s better paying roles out there. That’s something to be proud of and to be hopeful about.”

“There’s a huge level of ignorance out there in the greater agricultural industry in terms of tillage – and I can see why,” added John.

He explained that many people don’t understand tillage and crops because it’s a small sector and they have never been exposed to it.

“We need to encourage people into tillage from a young stage, maybe at the school level,” noted John.

Exposing young people to crops can build their interest and inform them of the wide range of roles in the sector in the future.

They both agreed that good policy can create positivity and attractiveness in the sector. John added that the Protein Aid Scheme and Straw Incorporation Measure have been brilliant.

“It’s not just money for nothing, it’s steering farming practice in the right direction through minding our soil and crop rotation.”

Limbo

CEO of Acorn Independent Merchants Barry Larkin added that the tillage sector is in limbo, and these successful schemes need to be rubberstamped for at least the next 10 years to provide certainty.

“I think the young people are there. I’ve found that in the past two years, going around to different tillage conferences, there’s a lot of young people at them,” he added.

The future of genetics and new varieties is positive, according to Tim O’Donovan, who explained that gene editing is being talked about a lot, but it is currently stuck in European Commission negotiations.

The Irish Seed Trade Association is represented in Europe by Euroseeds, and this organisation is doing a lot of work behind the scenes trying to get this technology approved.

Tim is optimistic about the outcome, and noted that the opinion of policymakers has changed in the past six of seven years.

“The European Union saw the Green Deal coming, and they saw gene editing as something that could help deliver that,” he said.

However, this will not lead to overnight benefits for farmers if it is eventually approved.

Rigorous testing

European plant breeders will need to adjust their processes and it takes a number of years for new varieties to be rigorously tested before they are commercially available, even though gene editing can speed up this process.

Therefore, Tim thinks that it will be up to 10 years before farmers are growing these gene-edited crops, and that’s assuming that the legislation is approved in the relatively near future.

“To get a direction from Brussels as to what they’re thinking of doing is so important because breeding takes time; there’s no point rushing a variety to the market that’s not good.”

He also noted that some great work is being achieved through conventional breeding. BYDV tolerance has arrived for winter barley in Ireland in the past number of years and this will branch out into other crops and lead to some fully resistant varieties in the future.

Clearfield oilseed rape varieties have allowed farmers to grow the crop in fields they would not have dreamed of doing in the past, and turnip yellows virus resistance has provided an additional layer of protection for growers.

The use of native grains and how value can be added to them will be critical in the future ­– and it was one of the hottest topics at Tillage Day.

Barry Larkin asked: “What constitutes Irish whiskey? It’s not just the feed sector that’s importing grain, it’s the food and drinks sector too.” Reducing these imports would instantly increase the value of Irish grain.

Tim O’Donovan felt that we need to examine what consumers will want in the future. “In 2040, when that bottle of whiskey is opened, it will be a different world that we’ll be living in, ”people will have different priorities.”

Dermot Forristal, a researcher at Teagasc, asked the audience whether the tillage industry’s ambition needs to be higher for the food and drinks sector.

“That’s the big difference between us and the dairy sector.

The dairy sector has a very good co-op structure that has served their producers extremely well.

“We’re now in an era where there’s going to be demand for more plant-based food.

Is it not in that area in the long-term that we need the policy to grow that over a long time? We’re forever just feeding another industry, and that’s limiting us,” he added.

This could be in the drinks industry, or through using grains for food by breaking them down into their constituents.

Liam Leahy of Dairygold warned that this is not simple, noting the money and resources needed, and the inevitable failures and bumps in the road before successful food and drink ventures are realised.

However, he acknowledged that they provide great security to merchants, and in turn, farmers, when they are successful.