More farmers making the switch to organic

Seán McGloin, manager of the National Organic Training Skillnet in the Organic Village at the National Ploughing Championships, Ratheniska, Co Laois. Picture: Dan Linehan

As farmer interest and consumer demand grows, the National Organic Training Skillnet (NOTS) has said it is currently working on developing an organic equivalent of the green cert.

NOTS, through which the course will be delivered, is hoping to have it ready for next September, according to manager Sean McGloin.

Mr McGloin said it was “full on” at the National Ploughing Championships this year, where the Organic Village tent was full of farmers interested in what it takes to convert to organic farming.

Higher input costs, and increased payment ceilings through the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine’s Organic Farming Scheme were commonly cited as the pull factors for organics.

The “green cert” is the term given to agriculture-related courses which qualify people as trained farmers with various ones available around the country, and while further details are awaited on this new organic version, Mr McGloin said that with increased consumer demand for organic produce, and increased interest by farmers in making the switch, the education structures and clear “career pathways” are needed as the sector grows.

Knowledge base

According to Mr McGloin, the “knowledge base” around approaches to soil health is increasing, and farmers “are almost weaning themselves off high inputs”, which is making the conversion to organics for many “much easier”.

“Soil degradation is an issue in Ireland, so before they even look at organic, they are starting to reduce their inputs, looking at things like multi-species swards,” he said.

Mr McGloin said many conventional farmers are “in a system they don’t necessarily want to be in”, with “a lot of environmentally good farmers seeing organic now as a pathway they can go”.

He said that “a lot of stuff has happened to align that allows” the organic sector to grow and that for farmers, “it doesn’t have to be cold turkey, people will gradually come in”.

He said he is “surprised” by the number of dairy farmers, in particular, he met during the course of the National Ploughing Championships who were looking at organics and considering it as an option.

The challenges for them can involve housing for animals, he said, however, “most things are workable”.

The land farmed organically across Ireland is expected to increase by 16,000 hectares, with 336 new applicants accepted into the Organic Farming Scheme, it was announced recently.

The new scheme will open for applications in early October.

Farmer to farmer trading hub

“One of the biggest challenges the sector has now is that we’re going to need an awful lot more staff to manage the inspections and all that, so there’s a big job demand,” Mr McGloin said.

Along with working on new training courses in organics, he said that NOTS is currently working on the idea of a “farmer to farmer trading hub”.

“We’re trying to come up with a model that farmer can buy off farmer, to keep the costs low. If a farmer has forage to sell or livestock to sell, the infrastructure isn’t always there for them.

“So we’re trying to come up with a system that a farmer can get notified that the other farmers are selling stuff so they can buy directly off them.”

Vincent Cleary, managing director of organic food producer Glenisk told the Irish Examiner that he used the platform at Ratheniska last week as a “recruitment drive, to meet and talk predominantly with farmers”.

“We’ve had a good response because although conventional milk pricing may be at an all-time high, milk price is cyclical,” Mr Cleary said.

“Whereas we believe and I think we’ve proven over the last 15-odd years, that organic is a more stable price.

“We believe to future-proof their farms, they should definitely be looking at organics.”

The base milk price paid out by processors for conventional August milk is between around 56c/l and 58c/l.

“We’ve always kept ahead of conventional pricing, despite the fact that we don’t work and live in the commodity space, so we have to be innovative,” Mr Cleary said.

“I suspect we’ve been sufficiently innovative that for the last 15-plus years, we’ve been chasing supply so our prices normally reflect where supply is.

“The fact that we’re currently, I believe, 16c above conventional pricing per litre, means that we’re still giving that financial incentive to farmers that when they come into the organic fold, it’s a more viable proposition than where they were before then.”