The ICMSA is seeking clarity on proposals by the Department of Agriculture to introduce a nutrient use surplus score to measure the environmental performance of individual farmers.
The proposal was tabled by Department officials at a recent meeting of the Agricultural Water Quality Working Group. It is unclear what the proposal entails, but the ICMSA has expressed concern that it is a crude metric to measure the efficiency and effectiveness of farmers’ nutrient usage.
The ICMSA is seeking an urgent meeting with the Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue to discuss the new proposal.
The farm organisation’s deputy president Eamon Carroll said farmers wanted to know a number of things including:
Exactly what the Department is proposing and what is to be measured or scored?Who would carry out the assessment of farmers’ nutrient use surplus?How much this process would cost?And who pays for that cost?Carroll maintained that the Department’s proposal risked becoming another “box-ticking exercise” that would place more requirements on farmers and cost them money to implement, without making a positive contribution to water quality.
“The ICMSA will not support such a system if the Department cannot bring forward evidence of its effectiveness,” the association’s deputy president insisted to the Irish Farmers Journal this week.
The ICMSA is seeking clarity on proposals by the Department of Agriculture to introduce a nutrient use surplus score to measure the environmental performance of individual farmers.
The proposal was tabled by Department officials at a recent meeting of the Agricultural Water Quality Working Group. It is unclear what the proposal entails, but the ICMSA has expressed concern that it is a crude metric to measure the efficiency and effectiveness of farmers’ nutrient usage.
The ICMSA is seeking an urgent meeting with the Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue to discuss the new proposal.
The farm organisation’s deputy president Eamon Carroll said farmers wanted to know a number of things including:
Exactly what the Department is proposing and what is to be measured or scored?Who would carry out the assessment of farmers’ nutrient use surplus?How much this process would cost?And who pays for that cost?Carroll maintained that the Department’s proposal risked becoming another “box-ticking exercise” that would place more requirements on farmers and cost them money to implement, without making a positive contribution to water quality.
“The ICMSA will not support such a system if the Department cannot bring forward evidence of its effectiveness,” the association’s deputy president insisted to the Irish Farmers Journal this week.
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