River water quality has improved, says minister
Farmers who oppose the Nitrates Directive will also take heart form his confirmation that use of phosphate and potassium fertiliser has fallen by 30% since 1995, and that of nitrogen fertiliser by almost 15%.
But he said agriculture contributes 35% of Ireland’s disproportionately high amounts of greenhouse gases, and he revealed that about 16% of the total gases reduction sought in the national climate change strategy must come from Agriculture. This means farms are targeted for a reduction of 2,410,000 megatonnes (mt) of carbon dioxide equivalent of greenhouse gases, in order to meet Ireland’s international Kyoto Protocol commitments. Minister Ahern was launching the second edition of Climate, Weather and Irish Agriculture for the AGMET Group at the Royal Irish Academy in Dublin.
Last October, Teagasc researchers Trevor Donnellan and Kevin Hanrahan calculated that unchanged Irish agriculture policies from 1990 to 2012 would have led to a 1.5 mt reduction of gases.
But they said the full decoupling which Ireland has opted for in the CAP Mid Term Review would lead to a 2.8 mt reduction. Now, the Government has aimed under this estimate, for 2.41 mt.
The Teagasc researchers had predicted a big reduction in gas emissions due to an 18% decline in suckler cow numbers with full decoupling.
