Darren O'Rourke
Question:12. Deputy Darren O'Rourke asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the measures he is taking to increase the amount of land in tillage. [69727/26]
View answerThursday, 8 October 2026
Questions (12)
Oral answers (7 contributions)
I heard the earlier question regarding supporting tillage farmers through the budget. My question has a slightly different emphasis in a similar area. What measures are the Minister taking to increase the amount of land in tillage?
I thank Deputy O'Rourke. The tillage sector is an integral part of Irish farming and makes a significant contribution to overall agricultural output. The Government recognises the importance of the sector and the challenges it faced this year, particularly higher input costs and the impacts of prolonged dry weather on crop yields and quality. It is the Government's ambition to grow the area in tillage in the years ahead. To be honest, what we needed to before growing the area was to stabilise it. It is remarkable that we have not lost more ground for tillage considering how difficult the past three years have been. I believe the Government's support has been an integral part of keeping farmers hanging in there in what has been a difficult time. There has not been a decent year in terms of tillage prices since 2022. The input costs, including machinery and beyond, are really high.
This is why we established the Food Vision tillage group, the report of which sets out the roadmap for the sustainable growth and development of the tillage sector. Implementation of the recommendations is ongoing, with progress reviewed regularly by the Food Vision tillage group. Considerable work has been undertaken across many of the key themes identified in Food Vision tillage report, and in particular to achieve greater recognition of the sustainability of Irish grain, along with securing new and expanded value-added opportunities. Additionally, significant funding has been provided for research focusing on areas such as the sustainability of protein production, new added-value opportunities to support the expansion of plant protein production, and the feasibility of organic feed milling and oilseed processing in Ireland.
My Department will continue to work closely with stakeholders to advance implementation of the report's recommendations, recognising that their successful delivery requires ongoing collaboration and commitment from many stakeholders across the sector. Ultimately, my vision and clear ambition for the tillage sector is to add value. Looking at what happened with our dairy and beef industries, it is the higher value markets. It is not competing on global world market prices. It is adding value to a lot of what the measures I have outlined earlier have that ambition at their heart.
I think there were up to 30 recommendations of the Food Vision tillage group. Will the Minister give us a sense of the progress on them, if he has any indication in relation to that? One of the big things I hear from tillage farmers in County Meath is the pressure in terms of availability of land and competition, whether it is from dairy or solar. Has the Minister done any assessment of that competition? What type of supports or intervention is he considering to try to balance things out to ensure that tillage is viable for farmers.
The Deputy is right to say land availability is a challenge in this space. As I said earlier, one of the key things in my mind when I was fighting to secure an extension to the nitrates derogation last year was not just for 7,000 derogation dairy farmers to continue to be able to avail of that because of our pasture-based system, it was because if they were at a reduced stocking rate, dairy farmers predominately would have required more land. They would have had to have changed their farming practices. They would have been in competition with tillage farmers. We know the income differential between dairy and tillage farming right now. That would have put a tillage farmer with really tight margins in recent years in a difficult position, such as for those tillage farmers renting land and beyond.
In this budget I have managed to secure an increase in funding allocation for the straw incorporation measure, SIM. I am delighted to be able to give the commitment that SIM will be covered next year. People know I exhausted a budget of a year early by continuously paying the full amount of allocations for it. A total of €50 million was allocated to it in the CAP strategic plan to the end of 2027. I exhausted that this year. I have received another €14 million. It means the entire package for tillage for 2027 has been increased to €54 million. That does not include the support in the Farming for Water EIP and beyond.
I will ask about the land use strategy review and how it relates to policy development. How is the Minister considering it? My understanding is that the final report from phase 2 is with the Minister and the Minister for energy and climate. Will he give us an indication in terms of whether it will make specific recommendations? Is it ambitious in a certain regard? How will it feed into policy development and the practical proposals that the Department will come forward with?
I have a supplementary question. I support Deputy O'Rourke regarding his particular question on tillage. I have two particular points I want to make. First, one of the issues that we have when we speak to the grain growers is that so much of the food and feed that we have in Ireland, which is used to produce a product that is then labelled as an Irish product. For example, practically the only Irish thing in Irish whiskey is the water. That is one of the situations that we have. The authenticity of the food we produce needs to be authentic. There needs to be some means of ensuring that, particularly in the brewing or distillery industry, that at least a large portion, if not all, of the product going into it is authentically Irish.
Under CAP, I understand that there may be some measures in regard to producer groups and strengthening the role of producer groups. Perhaps this is something that would assist the tillage industry in being able to have more muscle when it comes to ensuring that we get an adequate price for the product. The best way of sustaining any industry is ensuring that it gets a good price for what it produces.
Deputy Kenny made a point on producer organisations. We do not do enough producer organisations among farmers. It is challenging for farmers because they are signing up to a set of terms and conditions that are challenging. Very good farmers go into producer organisations because they understand directly what the market requires and they produce to the exact specification that is agreed at the start of the process. Many farmers produce what they have always produced, not mindful of changes in the market. I see that across different elements. The point on the value-added piece I made earlier is important in this regard. There is a pilot sustainability assurance scheme for tillage. I have challenged the tillage sector, farm organisations, industry and others that in order to get to the higher value market, we need a quality assurance scheme such as Origin Green and those key recommendations. That is how we are delivering the extra value for our dairy and beef sector. I know it is challenging and there are extra terms and conditions but that is where we need to get to. That is not at any extra cost to tillage farmers. It is being funded by the Department, Bord Bia and the Malting Company Ireland. Bord Bia has established a technical advisory committee in this regard. That is where we need to get to with tillage. We need to get away from dependency on world market prices and add the value-added piece for the top-quality produce they are producing.