Seven ways Ireland is transforming its agriculture and food systems to become climate-neutral

The Irish government has set ambitious goals for its land and agri-food sector: reduce emissions by 25 per cent by 2030 and achieve climate neutrality by 2050. EIT Climate-KIC is supporting Ireland to reach these goals through new, innovative approaches.

Agriculture in Ireland has a complex history. On the one hand, it is an obvious success story. Agricultural production is a key driver of the Irish economy, accounting for 4.3 per cent of the country’s gross value added and employing over 7 per cent of the total population. Ireland’s agri-food exports were a record €19 billion in 2022, a 22 per cent increase from the previous year. On the other hand, it returns a mixed societal picture: less than 7 per cent of Irish farmers are under the age of 35, and employees in this sector have low-income levels compared to other sectors of the economy.

It is against this backdrop that environmental challenges are profoundly impacting the agri-food system. Agriculture is faced with balancing a likely increased demand for output with the need to dramatically decrease its greenhouse gas emissions, currently contributing 38 per cent of the country’s overall emissions.

It is certain that Ireland’s agri-food system will look very different in the next 30 years. The question is, what will it look like? And what can the country do about it now?

The potential for sustainable agricultural practices in Ireland

To tackle this challenge, Ireland is embracing systemic innovation and climate-smart agriculture principles that go beyond technological improvements. As a starting point, Ireland is uniquely positioned to draw on a wide array of innovative solutions from circular bio-economy, to achieve the goal of sustainable food systems.

Adopting natural fertilisers (such as green manure and compost) and locally-sourced livestock feed (for example, through silvopasture, rotational grazing and using side flows from food production) has a regenerative impact on soil health and biodiversity. These solutions can also cut the emissions of the production and transport of artificial inputs, since they are produced from renewable sources.

Another interesting market that is certain to be explored and developed in the next years is alternative proteins for both human food and as feed additives. These include, for example, plant-based and ocean-based alternatives for human nutrition, as well as feed additives for livestock that can deliver methane emission reduction.

Finally, carbon farming is a ‘green’ business model that rewards farmers and land managers for taking up sustainable practices to increase carbon sequestration, notably through forests and grassland’s root systems. Ireland is the first European country to be developing a nation-wide scheme that will pay farmers not only for removing carbon but for wider ecosystem improvements, including biodiversity, water quality and soil health.

The framework, developed by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and EIT Climate-KIC, is expected to launch by summer 2024, and will be followed by a large-scale pilot aiming for at least 5,000 farms of various sizes between the end of 2024 and 2027, depending on funding.

Beyond agriculture: a food systems perspective

The agri-food value chain starts from the farm.  Supporting farming communities to thrive must be a pillar of climate action, by involving farmers at the start of the process, gathering nuanced perspectives, organising citizen assemblies where consumers can directly exchange with producers, and providing support to women and youths who are severely underrepresented.

Moving from farm to table, regenerative food production practices (for example, agroforestry and crop rotations) for local markets can and should be complemented by a shift towards low-impact and healthy diets, that are high in plant-based and whole foods and low in animal and processed foods.

And at the very end of the agri-food value chain, a circular bio-economy has huge potential in tackling food waste.  Innovations to design waste out of food and food packaging (including food loss and waste prevention, industrial symbiosis, reusable packaging business models and more) have a crucial role in a country where one million tonnes of food is thrown away each year.

All these solutions, however, require viable funding. EIT Climate-KIC’s analysis identified a developed innovation funding and financing market across the non-producer value chain, and across different stages of technology maturity as a potential source. However, when it comes to primary producer capital expenditure, confidence in the ability to transition towards a truly sustainable food system is still low, delaying the flow of existing, and vast, capital streams. This signals the need for stable, long-term policies and for farm demonstration projects.

Seven flagship areas of innovation that EIT Climate-KIC is helping unlock

Building on this progress, the Deep Demonstration partnership between EIT Climate-KIC and Ireland’s Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine mapped 275 practical, high-potential project ideas grouped under seven flagship innovation areas. Ideas span the entire value chainfrom developing new skills, to sustainability metrics, to renewable energy, to organic and carbon farming, to research and development, to funding. Four of the seven areas have a shorter term focus, aiming to be delivered by 2030 on a practical, value-chain level:

• Diversify incomes through carbon farming and nature credits, by developing a comprehensive framework and driving adoption at scale;
• Produce and certify climate-neutral beef, testing feasibility and fostering viable business models;
• Accelerate emission reduction and sustainability in dairy farms by testing a combination of policy and technology, and scaling existing approaches such as ClieNFarms’s;
• Grow and diversify the tillage sector, addressing barriers to its expansion, as well as identifying new opportunities and collaboration.

The remaining three have a longer, more ambitious timespan, aiming at delivering strategic, regional- and sector-level impact by 2050:

• Vision 2050: re-imagine Ireland’s land-agri-food system to generate stability and trust, and increase investment;
• Grow the sector through innovation and investment in new value chains, to generate new, entire sub-sectors and markets;
• Implement circular bio-economy models at regional or multiple value chains level, supporting smart specialisation and increasing the maturity and scale of these solutions.

EIT Climate-KIC started rolling out four of these frameworks in 2023, in collaboration with key stakeholders representing the entire Irish agri-food value chain. In 2024, they have started piloting, testing and scaling solutions in carbon farming and sustainable dairy across a wide range of farms.

Are you interested in getting involved, and contributing your expertise and project to support the transition? Learn more about the Deep Demonstration partnership and how you can collaborate to shape sustainable food systems.

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