Once again we see evidence of the Government’s vision for farming being made up on the hoof. This time it was Minister of State Pippa Hackett pondering at the Dublin Horse Show whether farmers would be better off giving up cows and breeding horses.

In the eyes of Minister Hackett, emissions from animals used for food production appear to be on par with the emissions from animals used solely for recreational activity – that is unless the minister is of the view that we should be breeding horses for meat consumption.

Her comments follow on from what is now an increasingly common trend where Government ministers and others make broad, sweeping statements on the future of Irish farming in the complete absence of even a basic impact assessment on farm incomes.

How many times in recent months have we heard farmers promised a bright new future with new income streams? It appears that long gone are the days when Government policy on agriculture was informed by solid research and rooted in economics.

High-risk strategy

Increasingly, rather than robust research being used to inform policy, we see the research agenda being influenced by the need to validate policy decisions that have already been taken. It is a high-risk strategy in terms of the threat to farm incomes and the long-term viability of the sector.

The push to organic farming is one of many examples. Rather than research identifying organics as having potential to drive farm incomes, we see both the research programme and advisory capacity within Teagasc scrambling to tool up in response to a policy decision to commit €250m to an organic aid scheme.

The decision to do so was aligned to Government policy to force farmers to reduce production in a bid to achieve an emission reduction target. As a result, the economic rationale and farming blueprint is now having to be developed retrospectively.

Major agri-food event

Interestingly, Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue has announced plans for a major agri-food policy event in October. Hopefully this will be an opportunity for the minister and his Department to actually present a detailed policy vision for the sector; one that moves beyond talking about what the future of Irish farming looks like to actually presenting a credible roadmap – a roadmap that details how the Government plans to protect the economic viability of each sector while detailing how farmers will be supported in seizing the new income opportunities about which so many within Government speak.

A detailed plan on how farmers will be rewarded for carbon removals should feature within this roadmap. As Anne Finnegan reports this week, there is an urgent need for regulation in the voluntary carbon market if farmers are to harness this opportunity. A carbon-trading scheme has the potential to significantly rebalance farmers’ power within the supply chain and motivate them to further improve sustainability. But to achieve this, a properly constructed mechanism to allow farmers measure, record and verify the levels of carbon being sequestered and stored in their soils, hedgerows and trees is needed.

Fairness for farmers

John Hourigan, chair of the newly formed Carbon Removals Action Group (CRAG), makes some excellent points in this regard in this week's big interview, highlighting the need for farmers to be treated with greater fairness in how their emission profile is calculated.

A forward-looking vision for Irish agriculture should not only see Government commit to bringing forward necessary regulation but also investing in establishing a baseline carbon stock at a national level – similar to what is being rolled out in Northern Ireland.

Using time-limited funds within the Brexit Adjustment Reserve (BAR) fund should be deployed for this type of strategic project. Similarly, BAR funding should also be strategically invested in establishing a national DNA database for the national livestock herd – a move that would not only allow for the fast-tracking of genetic improvement but also give Ireland a unique point of difference in international markets.

It is these types of strategic investment projects, with the potential to deliver real benefits in terms of both economic and environmental sustainability, that should be the focus of debate – not on-the-hoof policies that are neither founded in research nor economic reality.