Farmers and Government authorities are collectively pushing the EU Council to take time to fully analyse the implications for agri-food producers before ratifying any Mercosur deal.

Fishing gear including nets, lines, pots and ropes are accounting for 27% of all beach litter, but only 1.5% of it is effectively recycled.

Farmers have until next Wednesday, May 15, to complete their Basic Payment Scheme application online.

Five days of deal-making at this year’s biggest food fair in the world gave Irish producers a vital platform as they seek new markets beyond the UK, reports Padraig Hoare.

Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Heather Humphreys, has said the Brexit loan scheme launched last March is working, and people are applying for the funding.

Bankers indicated last week that pig farmers may be the most stretched sector financially, and that cattle finishers are considering selling feed rather than buying cattle.

The next low-cost farmer loan scheme will be focused on long-term capital investment and finance, unlike the previous cash flow scheme.

Work is due to start shortly on clearing gantry cranes and other scrap metal from a toxic dump in Cork harbour, as a prelude to making the site safe and transforming it into a public park with playing pitches.

The first LEADER contracts are issuing to local action groups, in the first stage of provision of €250m in LEADER funding to support development of sustainable rural communities, up to 2020.

We are writing as a concerned group of leading animal welfare organisations including Dogs Trust, Europe’s largest dog welfare charity, and two of Ireland’s oldest and largest animal welfare charities, the Irish SPCA and the Irish Blue Cross.

In response to a recent spate of uncontrolled burning incidents in Cos Cork and Kerry, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine has repeated warnings to farmers and other landowners that land burning remains unlawful between March 1 and August 31.

THE recent BSE scare underlined once again the importance of the Irish food and agriculture industry, and how a significant part of the nation’s economy can become affected by an unexpected circumstance.

Private nursing home residents cannot complain to watchdog while those in public nursing homes can

Starkly contrasting faces of Ireland were plain to see yesterday as a cutting-edge company which began life as a cattle breeding society announced new jobs on a rising tide of economic optimism while, simultaneously, a social justice think-tank released a stinging report showing poverty levels increasing across the country which now ranks among the worst in Europe.

Staff at SouthWestern’s base in Clonakilty, Co Cork, are to develop a database for sheep, goats, and deer in England as part of a €7m five-year state contract.

Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney will brief a parliamentary committee on the horse meat controversy today after a second processing plant tested positive for equine DNA.

A COMPLETE and total poverty of imagination.

Forestry owners are being placed on high alert for signs of Chalara fraxinea, the Ash Dieback disease which has destroyed forests across Europe.

The 2013 Bioenergy Scheme to grant aid planting of willow and miscanthus crops is now open for applications and interested farmers can apply for establishment grants of up to €1,300 per hectare to cover 50% of the cost of establishing these crops.

The joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine expressed cross-party support yesterday for a revival of the sugar industry, but suggested that the two main sugar groups should adopt a joint approach.

Silage effluent is one of the most toxic sources of pollution on the farm, and must be managed carefully.

Glanbia has unveiled trade deals that bring to 9,000 tonnes its annual dairy and nutritional ingredients business in China.

Five academic and research institutions are joining forces to share knowledge in a new all-island cheese study.

Irish agri-food companies will engage in knowledge transfer projects with partners in Africa in a new Government scheme launched yesterday.