A new digital sustainability platform, AgNav, has been developed to conduct robust sustainability assessments of farming systems in Ireland.

As a result of collaboration over the past few years, Teagasc, ICBF, and Bord Bia have integrated Teagasc life cycle assessment (LCA) models into the ICBF infrastructure to calculate the greenhouse gas intensity, or more commonly known as the carbon footprints of beef and dairy farms.

Using this infrastructure the collaboration has developed the AgNav platform, an online platform accessible to farmers and advisers. The initial phase of the AgNav platform calculates greenhouse gas emissions and ammonia emissions from commercial beef, dairy and mixed cattle systems.

Data ownership

Farm data residing in existing databases, including those in ICBF and Bord Bia, are collated to “provide a snapshot” of each individual farm. Using existing data also maximises the automation potential of the assessment process, improving the user experience and accuracy.

Importantly, the data that is used in the AgNav platform is owned by the farmers, therefore they are in control at all times in terms of data sharing permissions.

Along with establishing the greenhouse gas and ammonia emissions benchmarks for individual farms, the AgNav platform also provides an interactive decision support tool that communicates the benefits of best practice adoption.

Based on the outcomes of the decision support tool, users can then create a farm-specific action plan through the AgNav action planner tool. Through a series of workshops, the AgNav platform is being co-designed with advisers, farmers and other key stakeholders, to provide transparency and ensure that it is user friendly, interactive, and informative. This will be an iterative process as the AgNav platform develops new features and functionality.

Grazing demonstration plots at Grass 10 village during a previous Teagasc Moorepark open day. \ Donal O'Leary

The initial phase of the AgNav platform will be deployed through the Teagasc Signpost Advisory Programme where it will be a key tool for farmers to become familiar with environmental impact indicators, establish benchmarks for their farm, and, with the assistance of their assigned Signpost adviser and the AgNav decision support tool, create a farm specific action plan.

Expansion

While the initial phase of the AgNav platform focuses on beef, dairy and mixed cattle systems, the overall aim is to cater for all major farming enterprises in Ireland (eg sheep, tillage, pigs, poultry, horticulture, forestry) and expand the scope of the assessment to account for other sustainability indicators such as carbon storage and sequestration, biodiversity, water quality and economics.

Once the pilot phase in 2023 has been completed, the intention is that the AgNav platform, which is free to use, will expand to all farmers including those availing of private advisory services.

The ambition is that through industry wide collaboration and data integration AgNav will become the predominant method of conducting sustainability assessments of farming systems in Ireland.