Ireland's State of the Environment Report 2024

266 Chapter 10: Environment and Agriculture conditions and may be important in the years ahead as a climate change adaptation measure. Recent Teagasc plot trials have demonstrated that nitrogen application can be substantially reduced without affecting grass growth or productivity where clover and mixed-species swards are sown. Further research is under way to develop a blueprint for low, or zero, nitrogen fertiliser use for low-emission pasture-based dairy farming (Teagasc, 2022), and further research is needed to improve the medium and longer term persistence of some of the species in the multi-species swards. New research has been initiated investigating the nitrogen leaching and agronomic aspects of plantain, for example, and the role of red clover is growing in conservation- based systems. All farms under a nitrates derogation are required to include 5 kg of white clover per hectare when reseeding swards, and a new expanded multi- species sward measure and a red clover silage measure were rolled out in 2023 to encourage farmer uptake of multi-species and clover swards (DAFM, 2023b). Use of low-emission slurry spreading and protected urea. The use of low-emission slurry spreading techniques and protected urea are key measures to mitigate the impacts of ammonia and greenhouse gas emissions. The Teagasc Farm Sustainability Report for 2022 (Buckley and Donnellan, 2023) reported that an average of 14% of total chemical nitrogen fertiliser use on dairy farms, which are the biggest users, was in the form of protected urea, while the figure for cattle farms was substantially lower at 4.3%. In 2023, over half of straight chemical nitrogen used was in the form of urea, 34,000 tonnes (22%) of which was protected urea. In 2022, almost 75% of slurry on dairy farms and less than 34% of slurry on cattle farms was spread using low-emission slurry spreading. These figures all represent an improvement since the previous year but nevertheless demonstrate the challenges ahead if full implementation is to be achieved. Sustainable farming initiatives. There has been an increased focus in Ireland in recent years on environmentally sensitive farming practices. A number of networks, projects and farming strategies have been established that seek to educate, encourage and promote good practice in farming with nature. Some of these include the Farming for Nature 24 initiative, BASE Ireland 25 and Regenerative Farming Ireland. 26 There are also ambitious policy targets in place to grow the organic farming sector from 2.32% of utilisable agricultural area in 2022 to 7.5% of land being farmed by 2027, through 24 www.farmingfornature.ie (accessed 31 May 2024). 25 www.baseireland.ie (accessed 31 May 2024). 26 www.regenerativefarmingireland.com (accessed 31 May 2024). 27 www.gov.ie/en/service/d46aec-organic-farming-scheme/ (accessed 31 May 2024). 28 www.bordbia.ie/farmers-growers/origin-green/ (accessed 31 May 2024). the Organic Farming Scheme 27 (DAFM, 2023c). Carbon farming may bring potential future opportunities for Irish farmers, but it will be important that a data management and verification framework, and independent auditing, is established (Teagasc, 2023b). Farm sustainability action, incentive and bonus payments are increasingly being offered by the dairy cooperatives to encourage their suppliers to carry out a range of environmental actions on farm. The cooperatives also support the ASSAP team with a number of dairy industry advisers who focus on water quality issues on their suppliers’ farms. Origin Green, 28 the food and drink sustainability programme run by Bord Bia, operates at a national level and includes farmers and primary producers, processors and retailers. Many producers are also certified members of the Bord Bia quality assurance programmes. While these quality assurance schemes are welcome and have the potential to raise environmental standards, the emergence of some Origin Green-certified food and drink facilities on the EPA’s list of national priority sites for enforcement action, due to their poor compliance and environmental performance records, is not sustainable and needs to be addressed. Challenges relating actions to outcomes. Despite all the positive actions being taken on farm in recent years, it is unclear what has been achieved in terms of environmental outcomes. While the National Farm Survey and Bord Bia audits do provide some evidence on the implementation and adoption of measures, particularly in relation to climate change, there is a lack of sufficient, spatially explicit evidence on where measures are being implemented on farms, and on how farm practice has changed, that can be directly and geographically related back to the resulting environmental improvements that may have occurred. To determine whether measures are working in terms of environmental improvements, there needs to be data and evidence available on the actions and their progress in terms of implementation and an assessment of their effectiveness. The lack of evidence of measures being implemented to support biodiversity was an important element of the recent Court of Justice of the European Union case against Ireland for failing to fulfil its obligations under EU biodiversity conservation law (CJEU, 2023). Similarly, a recent European Court of Auditors report on the environmental outcomes of the EU’s expenditure on climate action through the CAP showed that it has delivered little reduction in agricultural emissions since 2010 (European Court of Auditors, 2021).