Climate is right for a change in agriculture

With changes in agriculture and food production predicted as a result of climate change, the Government has announced incentives for growing energy crops, writes Agribusiness Correspondent RAY RYAN

GLOBAL warming, now regarded by many people as the greatest crisis facing humanity, presents opportunities for Irish agriculture to make a great contribution to national energy self-sufficiency.

That’s the considered view of various experts but the challenge now looks even greater with the United Nations yesterday issuing its bleakest warning yet about the likely impact of climate change.

It predicts massive migration flows and major flooding affecting coastal cities around the world if the atmosphere carries on heating up at current rates. Rising sea levels, heat waves and droughts are feared.

Hundreds of millions of people may be either flooded out of their homes or go hungry. Shortages of fresh water would result as snow- packs shrink and glaciers recede. And the impact on animal, plant and bird life would be devastating.

The findings, however, should not come as a total surprise in Ireland where research published last month by the Environmental Protection Agency presented a worrying picture.

It predicts that a global temperature rise of up to 2°C would result in a significant sea level rise and more intense storms and rainfall.

These would lead to the increased likelihood of river and coastal flooding and to summer water shortages in the east, with a greater need for irrigation of crops and the risk of more frequent wild fires and pest infestation.

Changes in agriculture and food production would also follow. A rise in temperature could create the potential for increased production of existing cereal and grass crops. However, these may also be hampered by decreases in summer rainfall.

Warm weather crops such as maize and soybean could become viable. Maize could become a major crop, while soybean could become established in some regions.

But the potato crops, traditional to Ireland, could become vulnerable and suffer from water stress.

Despite the decrease in summer water receipt, total grass production is still expected to increase irrespective of soil type or use of irrigation.

Increases in temperature in the short term could be beneficial for agricultural yield, but a rise of more than a few tenths of a degree could reduce crop yields, depending on the species.

Meanwhile, the Government, along with the European Union, has introduced policy initiatives and set out various strategies for dealing with the issues relating to climate change. It has announced incentives for growing energy crops and set targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

With experts continuing to warn about climate change impacts, Dr Eddie O’Connor, chief executive of Airtricity, the independent supplier of wind-generated energy, outlined the need and opportunity to recast Irish farming when he addressed the Agricultural Science Association annual conference in Sligo last September.

He said the population of the planet could be halved by 2100 as large areas become susceptible to drought and others to flooding.

“The North Pole ice cap is retreating at 9% per decade and will be gone by the middle of this century along with all its habits and unique ecosystems.

“The density of the water in the North Atlantic will change and no one knows what effect this will have on the Gulf Stream,” he said.

“If the ice cap on Greenland melts, then sea levels will begin to rise and if it fully melts, then sea levels will rise by several metres.”

Dr O’Connor said Ireland, which imports 90% of its fuel, could make great strides to increase its wealth and competitiveness if it builds on the great strength of the country’s agricultural tradition.

Instead of set-aside and growing food, people could grow energy crops.

Irish Farmers Association (IFA) Bio-energy Project Team Leader JJ Kavanagh claimed, however, that the focus at European level on fully utilising agricultural resources for this purpose is lacking in the Government’s White Paper on Energy.

“What growers need to see is the establishment of an indigenous bio-energy processing sector that is capable of adding value to farm produce while at the same time addressing carbon emission concerns,” he said.

IFA president Padraig Walshe said the association is committed to the development of an indigenous renewable energy sector.

Stressing that a co-ordinated national action programme is needed to meet Ireland’s commitments under the Kyoto Protocol and the EU Bio-fuels Directive, he said climate change is an inescapable reality.