EPA - Ireland's Environment 2016

Ireland’s Environment – An Assessment 2016

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The structure of Irish farming enterprises is partially

but substantially predicated by the biophysical and

climatic context in which these enterprises are situated.

Consequently increases in primary production systems

will not be uniform across the country as regional and

local biophysical factors together with socio-economic

considerations will determine where intensification may

take place. The consideration of how farmland can provide

multiple benefits within a Functional Land Management

framework provides an opportunity to achieve a more

holistic and positive outcome for the Irish environment

and for farming communities. This would, however,

require continuing the drive towards a more targeted

approach than is currently employed to address the

pressure agriculture places on local environments. There are

substantial challenges in seeking to apply such an approach

at a local scale. Incentivising location – appropriate farming

that can provide a reasonable economic return such as the

Burren programme may provide an exemplar of how this

could be achieved. That being said there are substantial

constraints on farmers, both economic and time wise to

engage with environmentally positive activities given the

issues of farming viability. Nevertheless there are double

dividends to be achieved where certain practices such as

improved nutrient management planning can save farmers

money whilst also reducing the risk of nutrient loss to the

environment.

The main climate change impacts expected for the

agriculture sector will result from changes in air and

soil temperature, changes in rainfall patterns and more

extreme events. For farming, climate change will require

adaptation to a new reality and this will impact on

farmers more directly than most other sectors of society.

Adaptation to these changes is a key consideration for

Irish agriculture to be addressed in the sectoral Climate

Adaptation Framework mandated under the Climate Act.

The challenge of achieving GHG neutrality within the

combined agriculture and land use sectors is substantial

and agriculture has a pivotal role to play in combatting

climate change by improving the GHG efficiency of

production. The challenges associated with implementing

planned policies and measures that are aimed at reducing

emission should not be underestimated and will need

a combination of education, incentives, resources and

substantial commitment by all stakeholders to enable

implementation.

There are clearly substantial current challenges in relation

to improving the environment from a water quality and

biodiversity standpoint. Eutrophication caused by nutrient

loss from agricultural activities is the most significant

pressure on the water environment and the current lack

of progress with attaining improvement in water quality

is a major concern. The rise of the detection of pesticides

in source drinking water is a particularly worrying

development. Both the World Health Organisation

drinking water safety planning approach and integrated

catchment management approach being developed under

WFD highlight the need to address these issues in the

catchment.

The AgImpact Project (Carton

et al

., 2016) highlighted the

significant challenge in developing processes to promote

the application of knowledge that will deliver increased

efficiency and profitability while protecting natural capital

including water. This challenge is characterised within the

variability of the biophysical setting and more importantly

within the context of the socio-economic challenges

facing farming communities including the viability of their

enterprises. The study identified the need for improved

communications that will build mutual trust between

and within generators of knowledge, policy development

stakeholders and active “on the ground” parties including

farmers and advisors. Achieving improved environmental

performance within this context is a major challenge and

will require the building of trust and partnerships to help

overcome the sectoral, natural, economic, social and

demographic variability that characterises and shapes the

sector and its interactions with its environment. This will

require fostering collaboration across a wide number of

stakeholders including the farming community.