New farmland biodiversity education programme at UCC
Professor Frank Buckley with Tánaiste Micheál Martin and Munster Agricultural Society president Robert Harkin launching the new programme at Cork Summer Show 2023.
A Farmland Biodiversity Education and Research Programme at University College Cork (UCC) is being established.
At the official opening of the 2023 Cork Summer Show this past weekend, Tánaiste Micheál Martin announced the collaboration between the Munster Agricultural Society and UCC.
The society is providing a philanthropic gift of €375,000 to the Cork University Foundation.
The arrangement provides for the development of the new farmland biodiversity programme within Agricultural Science at UCC.
The society will also loan a two-acre research site to UCC for plot-based research in soil and grassland science.
The objective of the new programme at UCC, in conjunction with the Environmental Research Institute, is to develop and deliver a comprehensive programme of farmland biodiversity education, demonstration, research, and extension initiatives.
This aims to provide leadership to the industry, guidance for future policy and incentive schemes, and share with the public the positive actions being taken at farm level.
The Tánaiste said that Ireland's sustainable agricultural practices "play a pivotal role in the Irish economy", and that this partnership "will allow Ireland to continue to lead in terms of agricultural innovation, education, and research for generations to come".
Speaking to the at the show, Mr Martin said that he finds farmers across the country generally are "very alive to this agenda, and they put a lot in, in terms of doing the homework themselves and research" around environmental solutions.
"If other sectors in society had the same application, we might be in a better position overall climate-wise," he said.
He added that "it might seem" that the agriculture sector, however, is the one under the most scrutiny in terms of its emissions, but said this is not the case, with sectors such as transport and energy "under huge scrutiny".
"Every sector has to play its role, agriculture is playing a significant role; because if you look over the last 15 years, there has been an exponential growth in agricultural production and dairy production, particularly, since the lifting of the quotas and that brings with it sustainability challenges."
Because of this, farmers are adopting more of the right technologies, and many finding steps such as the inclusion of multispecies in their swards also benefiting "yield and quality of milk".
"There is a pathway there to reducing carbon emissions from agriculture whilst maintaining production and it will be challenging, but there are challenges in all areas of society, not just in Ireland, but globally," he said.
President of the Munster Agricultural Society Robert Harkin said this weekend that the society is "acutely aware of the challenges" facing the Irish agricultural sector, adding that it is "delighted" to be supporting the "sustainable development of agriculture in the region".
Frank Buckley, Professor of Agricultural Science and Head of Discipline of Agricultural Science Degree at UCC, said that this is a "much-needed" programme.
"It will also allow us to strengthen the delivery of our undergraduate and postgraduate teaching and cutting-edge research activity that will support the future sustainability of Irish grassland agriculture," he added.
