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A national fodder and food security committee has been formed following a meeting between Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue and farm organisations at Agriculture House on Tuesday night.
Minister McConalogue announced at the meeting that Teagasc will head the committee to “explore all options to minimise the impact on farms and plan in the short to medium term”.
The group is to meet later this week and is to report without delay on measures farmers and the sector can take to ensure there is enough fodder and feed for the coming winter.
Ideas put forward by farm organisations at the meeting on Tuesday will be brought to a meeting of the Cabinet on Wednesday by the Minister.
Nothing is off the table to support farmers and the sector and there were no concrete proposals set out or agreed upon at the meeting.
The Minister said at the meeting that Ireland’s agri sector is facing one of the most significant challenges in recent years.
“By working collectively and collaboratively, we can ensure that the sector is insulated against the worst of what might come from supply chain disruptions.
“Let me be clear, there is urgency to the work of this committee and I tasked them to meet and complete their work without delay.
“The first meeting of the committee is this Friday and there is a window of opportunity in the next number of weeks to make decisions to help us build resilience.
"The work of the National Fodder and Food Security Committee is the number one priority in the Department,” the Minister said.
This forum needs to have a strong terms of reference, with real teeth for making decisions
Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal after the meeting, Macra president John Keane welcomed the establishment of the forum, but said that such a forum should also be put in place to address tillage production and food security in the long term.
Terms of reference
“This forum needs to have a strong terms of reference, with real teeth for making decisions and a funding model in place.
“There will be funding available for measures. However, there was no indication of how much funding would be in place at tonight’s meeting,” he said.
Keane said that there needs to be a fodder support scheme which would help farmers with diesel and fertiliser costs and support for a high-protein forage crop, such as red clover silage.
“Everything is on the table, but this meeting was very general, with no specifics,” he said.
There has been no agenda set for the meeting later this week.
No proposals
Speaking after the meeting, Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) president Tim Cullinan said that the Minister came to the meeting with no proposals.
“We didn’t see any specific proposals required to increase our capacity to produce food. We need real Government action on the price of fuel, fertiliser and feed,” he said.
He said farmers will play their part in any national effort, but the crushing impact of rising input prices has to be addressed.
He called on the Minister to "come forward with concrete, funded proposals".
Growing grass
Speaking ahead of the meeting, Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association (ICMSA) president Pat McCormack, said that while his members were wiling to look at any feasible option to help the national response to the invasion of Ukraine and the knock-on effects for food supplies, the immediate priority must be growing grass to ensure proper silage for the end of this year and into next.
That meant that the Government should be focusing on address the rocketing costs of fertiliser and other inputs, such as diesel, associated with forage production, which McCormack said were now surging on a practically daily basis.
Price and supply
Irish Natura and Hill Farmers Association (INHFA) vice-president Pheilim Molloy said that for farmers, “price and supply, especially in relation to fertiliser, is a key consideration, as it will affect both in the short term and into next year if fodder yields are back”.
He also highlighted the cost of fuel as an issue on farms at the moment that needed to be tackled.
The Minister will meet members of the fertiliser, grain and importing industries on Wednesday 9 March.
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