Agriculture can not only ‘help itself, but also other sectors’ in decarbonising

'As an agricultural country, there’s huge opportunity for bioenergy'

'You have a whole biogas industry that could be developed based on waste residues from slurries, farmyard manures, all that type of material, but the policy framework and landscape doesn’t support it.' Picture: iStock / Getty Images

Agriculture can not only “help itself” in reducing its emissions through the use of bioenergy, but it can also “help other sectors to decarbonise”, industry experts told a conference this week.

Speaking to the Irish Examiner at a recent event held at Teagasc’s Ashtown Food Research Centre on using carbon-neutral biomass to reduce farm fuel costs, Seán Finan, chief executive of the Irish Bioenergy Association (IrBEA), said as an “agricultural country, there’s a huge opportunity for bioenergy”.