Ireland's State of the Environment Report 2024

246 Chapter 10: Environment and Agriculture ■ Dependency on farm payments. The agriculture sector in Ireland relies heavily on income support through farm payments and schemes under the EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). The potential for future reductions in CAP funding poses a significant concern for farmers and the sector’s future stability and viability. Developing alternative models of support and diversifying income sources can help reduce the dependency on subsidies and create more resilient farming systems. Consumers are not currently paying the true costs of food production. Meanwhile, development of a circular bioeconomy could open up alternative revenue streams based on less impactful land uses. ■ Technology and innovation adoption. The uptake of technological advances and innovation in Irish agriculture, and indeed globally, has been mixed. It is widely known that there is a diverse range of factors that influence the adoption of new technologies at farm scale, including farm and farmer characteristics and socio-psychological issues such as attitudes and social pressure (Daxini et al ., 2019). These factors can hinder productivity improvements, efficiency gains and the adoption of sustainable practices. Encouraging research and development, providing training opportunities and promoting knowledge exchange, such as through the Teagasc Signpost Programme, can accelerate the adoption of innovative technologies in the sector. A whole-of- government and industry approach is also needed to provide appropriate regulations and incentives. ■ Food waste. Growing, processing and transporting food all use significant resources such as land, water and energy. Food loss and food waste is generated at each stage along the food chain: primary production, manufacturing and processing, distribution and retail, restaurants and food services, and households. In Ireland, households are one of the biggest sources of food waste. Prevention is the best way to address food waste – the National Food Waste Prevention Roadmap (DECC, 2022) was developed in 2022 with the aim of halving Ireland’s food waste by 2030. ■ Challenges with scale. There are challenges with scale in developing and implementing policy in space and time. Policies and regulations are set nationally for application at farm scale, but environmental problems are not ‘one size fits all’ and often need to be tackled at local community, catchment and landscape scales in different ways. Context-specific priority actions for individual farmers and other landholders should align with strategic land use priorities for the relevant habitat type or landscape setting. There are also time lags between policy design, implementation and the environmental outcome, which means that far-sighted action that extends beyond the typical policy time frame is needed. Agriculture and the economy Over the last decade, triggered by the economic recession in the 2000s and the opportunities presented by the lifting of the dairy quotas in 2015, Ireland has pursued an ambitious strategy for growth in the agriculture sector. Three successive agriculture sector strategies have been developed and implemented: Food Harvest 2020 (DAFM, 2021b) and Food Wise 2025 (DAFM, 2015) were both focused on driving growth and economic output, while Food Vision 2030 (DAFM, 2021a) adopted a more integrated food systems approach that recognised the links between policies for food, climate, the environment and health. While these initiatives have brought significant economic benefits to the sector and the economy as a whole, the evidence shows that this growth has been associated with environmental impact. There are also significant hidden environmental, social and health costs in the agri-food system (Topic Box 10.2). There is a growing recognition in the sector, however, that this is unsustainable in the long term and needs to change.