William Aird
Question:306. Deputy William Aird asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the supports, advisory services or pricing models are currently available to farmers who may wish to diversify. [27543/26]
View answerWednesday, 15 April 2026
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Written answers
Ireland’s approach to delivering sustainable agriculture and food is set out in Food Vision 2030, Ireland’s stakeholder-led strategy. One of the main missions of Food Vision is for “Viable and Resilient Primary Producers with Enhanced Well-Being”. Among its goals is to “Increase Primary Producer Diversification & Resilience”.
Food Vision states that while Ireland has a comparative advantage in grass-based livestock production, and that this will remain at the core of Ireland’s agri-food output, there are advantages in working towards a more diversified sector. Diversification has the potential to make individual farms more sustainable and resilient from all three perspectives of sustainability - economic, environmental and social. The Goal goes on to examine the following areas in more detail:
• Organic Farming
• Forestry
• The Bioeconomy
• Expansion of the existing commercial crop (horticultural and arable) production and the growing of new commercial crops, including food protein crops
• The role that Irish agriculture could play in decarbonising other sectors of the economy through the production of bioenergy and biogas.
Other options mentioned include regenerative farming, contract rearing, dairy-beef systems, rural tourism, eco-tourism, contracting, artisan food production, consultancy and renewable energy.
My Department provides a range of supports in this regard, such as the Organic Farming Scheme, a number of forestry schemes under the Forestry Programme 2023-2027, two dairy-beef schemes, and a Protein Aid Scheme.
In terms of advisory services, the Teagasc Options Programme is active in advising and mentoring farmers.