Teagasc Join Forces With NUI Galway In Efforts To Reduce the Carbon-Footprint of Irish Agriculture

14 Jul 2016 --- In an attempt to address high greenhouse gas emissions, Teagasc and NUI Galway have announced the establishment of a Strategic Research and Training Alliance on Carbon-Neutral Agriculture.

The Irish agri-food sector is the largest source of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions, and combined with Irish targets to dramatically grow the Irish agrifood sector by 2020/2025, the likely result is the country exceeding its national targets for greenhouse gas emissions, resulting in major fines.

“The catalyst behind this move was the challenge of reconciling the national objective of growing food production and exports as enunciated in the recent policy statement FoodWise2025 with a requirement to substantially reduce carbon emissions from the sector.” Director of Teagasc, Professor Gerry Boyle told FoodIngredientsFirst: “There was also recognition from both institutions that the scale and complexity of this challenge required a multidisciplinary research response. By combining resources and expertise in NUIG and Teagasc we can achieve this.”

The new partnership will see the Teagasc and NUI Galway Strategic Alliance bring together research and researchers across many subject areas ranging from agri-biosciences, engineering, informatics, economics, marketing and agri-business. The Alliance will have a particular focus on postgraduate (PhD and Masters) research and training, with the launch of a new jointly developed Structured PhD Programme in Plant and AgriBiosciences, and a new Structured Masters degree in AgriBiosciences.

With regards to future targets, Boyle explained: “As we still await the outcome of the 'burden sharing' agreement at EU level no target emission reductions have been adopted yet for the project. The project will work towards the achievement of whatever targets are agreed by government.”

He adds: “However, the project is committed to the overarching objective of a 'carbon neutral' agriculture which implies that the aim of the project is to work towards ensuring that emissions from agriculture are offset by cost effective mitigation measures, including carbon sequestration from afforestation. This objective is very much viewed as a long-term objective.”

Commenting on the food and farming industries efforts to battle climate change a whole, Boyle clarified, “Both farmers and the food industry are strongly committed to sustainability. Food consumers, especially on continental markets, are demanding that food be produced and processed sustainably and that this be verified.”

He added: “In Ireland, the evidence so far indicates that the Agri-food sector is strongly committed to sustainability. Ireland has the lowest carbon footprint for dairying in the world and is also among the lowest for beef production. This outcome is due to our predominantly grass-based system of ruminant livestock production. Moreover the overall carbon footprint of Irish agriculture has consistently fallen in recent years at a rate of about 1% per annum.”

Recent analyses have shown that current agricultural interventions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at the global level will only deliver 21-40% of target.

by Hannah Gardiner