Ireland is set to follow New Zealand’s approach to reducing greenhouse gas emissions from livestock-related food production over the next decade and beyond, it has emerged.
draft of the long-awaited 2030 Agri-Food Strategy – the 10-year successor to FoodWise 2025 – sets a specific target to achieve a “minimum 10pc reduction in biogenic methane” from ruminants by 2030.
The blueprint – developed, and agreed to, by all committee members / sector stakeholders, including farm organisations – also aims for an overall “24pc-47pc” decrease in methane emissions by 2050, in line with the Government’s AgClimatise roadmap.
However, the full document – seen by this publication – does not present detailed actions on how this objective will be delivered; nor does it make specific reference to a baseline year.
Other targets are for annual chemical nitrogen use not to exceed 325,000t by 2030 and for nitrous oxide emissions, associated with chemical fertiliser, to reduce by 50pc.
From a carbon perspective, it targets a reduction in management intensity of a minimum 40,000ha of peat-based agricultural soils – with an ambition to “substantially increase” this area over the decade.
The draft aims to genotype the entire national herd by 2030, increase the number of dairy herd milk recording from 50pc to 90pc, and the number of suckler beef herds in beef weight recording from 30pc to 70pc by 2030.
Under the draft, 90pc of all slurry application is to be applied by low emission equipment by 2027. Plus, all external slurry stores are to be covered by 2027 and 65pc of straight CAN fertiliser sales are to be protected urea / protected nitrogen by 2030 to mitigate ammonia emissions.
Furthermore, it aims to reduce agricultural energy use by atleast 20pc by 2030; and to generate at least 20pc deployment of renewable energy technologies.
Carbon budgets
In defence of its scant detail on specific actions to reduce biogenic methane, the strategy says working towards a climate-neutral food sector by 2050 will be done within the framework of the five-yearly sectoral budgets provided for under the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Bill to be decided during 2021.
It states: "In advance of these decisions, the strategy cannot propose a detailed plan for the delivery of a carbon-neutral sector by 2050, but it can indicate certain parameters, policy directions and milestones.
“AgClimatise foresees a significant reduction in methane emissions, in the order of 24-47pc, out to 2050. This strategy to 2030 adds to this ambition by aiming to achieve a minimum 10pc reduction in biogenic methane by 2030.
This aligns with the international position of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and mirrors the approach being taken elsewhere.
"In conjunction with measures to reduce emissions from the national herd, technology will play a key role in underpinning this ambition.
"Under the auspices of the 2030 process, detailed plans will be produced by Q2 2022 to manage the sustainable environmental footprint of the dairy and the beef sectors.
"AgClimatise makes clear that an increase in the total national cattle herd above current levels will result in failure to achieve its targets,
“While suckler cow numbers have gradually reduced over recent years, the number of dairy cows continues to increase, although recent CSO data indicates the pace of that increase has slowed and total cattle numbers are relatively stable.
"These plans should reduce total methane, nitrous oxide and ammonia emissions, and make a positive contribution to improved water quality and biodiversity; address regulatory and legislative requirements; and build on the AgClimatise measures – particularly the impact of management practices and the application of existing technologies at farm level.”
While the fifth national agri-food strategy since 2000 – and the one in which the Environmental Pillar abruptly exited in February – has certain continuities with its predecessors, overall, it signals “transformative” changes in direction and policy to ensure the future development aligns with the need to reduce absolute emissions, reverse the decline in water quality and improve biodiversity.
It sets out four “high-level missions” underpinned by “22 goals” to be achieved in order to develop "an economic, social and environmentally sustainable” food system.
The “missions” are outlined as: a climate smart, environmentally sustainable sector; viable and resilient primary producers with enhanced wellbeing; food that is safe, nutritious and appealing – trusted and valued at home and abroad; and an innovative, competitive and resilient sector driven by technology and talent.
It states: "Facing into the decade to 2030, the agri-food sector has to make significant and urgent improvements in its environmental footprint. Leadership from within all the stakeholders is paramount as failure to achieve improvements in the environmental footprint will results in an erosion of Ireland's reputation as a sustianable producer of quality food.
“It will also meant that Ireland cannot take a leading position internationally as an advocate of sustainable food systems.”
The draft strategy will now go for a two-month public consultation period facilitated by the Department of Agriculture.
New Zealand
In 2019, New Zealand became the first country to acknowledge that biogenic methane (released when livestock digest grass and other leaves) "should be treated differently” to other GHG gases.
At the time, the NZ government stated that methane emissions from ruminant animals made up 34pc of the country’s total emissions (largely linked to a significantly increased dairy herd) – and was the single largest contributor to the overall country’s GHG emissions.
And so, the country’s lawmakers adopted a target to reduce emissions of this short-lived, but extremely potent, gas by 10pc below 2017 levels by 2030, and then by 24pc-47pc by 2050 – the move (largely involving the incorporation of low-emission feed, such as seaweed, fine-tuning production systems, once-a-day milking, efficiency improvements) was broadly welcomed by its dairy industry.
As outlined in the latest draft, agriculture is the largest contributor to Ireland’s GHG footprint (33pc); within biogenic methane accounting for 56pc of that figure.
