{"id":1238527,"date":"2024-03-07T15:10:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-07T15:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.agriland.ie\/?p=1238527"},"modified":"2024-03-08T09:15:17","modified_gmt":"2024-03-08T09:15:17","slug":"ifa-deputy-president-demands-level-playing-field-for-tillage-sector","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lightsail.agriland.ie\/farming-news\/ifa-deputy-president-demands-level-playing-field-for-tillage-sector\/","title":{"rendered":"IFA deputy president demands level playing field for tillage sector"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Irish Farmers\u2019 Association (IFA) deputy president, Alice Doyle, is calling on the government to fully support the tillage sector<\/a>, adding that this commitment must be made with immediate effect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Doyle used her presentation to the recent 2024 Diageo \/ Boortmalt Irish Malting Barley Excellence Awards to highlight the disparities now impacting on tillage farmers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These include the convergence of Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) payments, falling prices, ever tightening input costs and growers’ inability to compete with milk producers in securing land leasing agreements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recent developments <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Doyle specifically recognised the commitments made by Diageo and Boortmalt to develop their respective operations in Ireland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These developments will, in her opinion, lead to a further expansion of the malting barley industry at farm level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cIrish farm families already produce 300,000t of malting barley on an annual basis. The overall growth of the brewing, malting and distilling sectors has been a real success story,” she said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Doyle confirmed that the current pricing model for malting barley has worked well for growers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt has delivered premiums of between \u20ac65\/t and \u20ac100\/t over feed price over recent years, but it is important that a sustainable malting barley sector is retained in Ireland,” she continued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This means ensuring that growers receive commensurate prices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The deputy president continued: \u201cInflation has added significantly to the cost of doing business. Global grain prices are down by 60% since the heights of 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cDespite falls over the last 12 months, fertiliser prices remain at historically high levels. At the same time, we also have high energy costs.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe reality is that, \u20ac240\/t for malting barley in 2024 does not stack up relative to what was the same price delivered back in 2018.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tillage sector <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The IFA deputy president highlighted the challenges that confronted tillage farmers throughout 2023, culminating, for malting barley growers, with the highest level of rejection rates in living memory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs a consequence, many malting barley producers missed out on the premiums they had been counting on,” Doyle stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This had significant financial knock-on effects for their businesses as a whole.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She also referenced the impact that changes in the CAP are having on the tillage industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cConvergence of CAP payments has hit the tillage sector very badly. Similarly, changes to the nitrates derogation have created an explosion in land rental charges,” she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWith land rental costs now making up to \u20ac450\/ac, we have an unfolding scenario within which tillage producers cannot compete with other farmers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Doyle, Ireland\u2019s cropping area fell by 16,000ha in 2023. And she feels a further contraction is on the cards this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGovernment must act to halt the decline in the tillage sector. And this support must be forthcoming in ways that will make a real difference for growers in 2024.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n

Also Read: <\/strong>Organics Series: Could partial conversion help boost tillage profits?<\/span><\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Irish Farmers\u2019 Association (IFA) deputy president, Alice Doyle, is calling on the government to fully support the tillage sector, adding…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":138,"featured_media":704199,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1515,10922],"tags":[12935,4949,411,788,92],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lightsail.agriland.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1238527"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lightsail.agriland.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lightsail.agriland.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lightsail.agriland.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/138"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lightsail.agriland.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1238527"}],"version-history":[{"count":42,"href":"https:\/\/lightsail.agriland.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1238527\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1240950,"href":"https:\/\/lightsail.agriland.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1238527\/revisions\/1240950"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lightsail.agriland.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/704199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lightsail.agriland.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1238527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lightsail.agriland.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1238527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lightsail.agriland.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1238527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}