Minister in Laois for crisis face-to-face talks

The woes facing Laois tillage farmers whose backs are to the wall due to weather will be raised face to face with the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine on Laois land this week.

The Department of Agriculture has confirmed that Minister Charlie McConalogue will travel to Laois for a meeting with tillage farmers in Ballybrittas on Tuesday afternoon April 30.

Laois farmers have been to the fore arguing that a Government package is urgently needed to secure not just the future of individual farmers but the entire sector in the wake of a second bad spring which threatens this year's harvest on the back of an awful 2023.

Stradbally farmer and Irish Grain Growers Chairperson Bobby Millar told the Leinster Express / Laois Live that tillager farmers were now gambling on good summer weather this year but that even if that went well farmers would still just break even in 2024.

He called on the Minister and the Government to adopt the report of the Food Vision Tillage Group which is with the Agriculture Minister. Mr Millar's organisation has called for an €87 million investment in the sector in the first year of a five year implementation of the plan.

Ballinakill man and IFA President Francie Gorman has said the delivery of the Tillage Survival Scheme put forward by IFA is a litmus test for new Taoiseach Simon Harris.

“Tillage farmers have faced a perfect storm since summer 2023, with falling grain prices; input costs remaining high; loss of rented land; and near incessant rainfall in the period since," he said in mid April.

IFA National Grain Chairman and Laios farmer Kieran McEvoy the problems in the tillage sector predate the bad weather but the conditions have highlighted the "crisis on tillage farms". He called for a €67 million package to save growners.

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has just released its Area, Yield and Production of Crops 2023 report which revealed that cereal production down 21% in 2023.

Sophie Emerson, a CSO Statistician in Agriculture Surveys, painted a stark picture of what tillage farmers in Laois and elsewhere endured last year.

"Overall, there was a decrease in the production of Cereals in 2023 compared to 2022. The combined decrease in production across Wheat, Oats and Barley was 531,300 tonnes (-20.9%). Production of Wheat, Oats and Barley decreased by 199,200 tonnes (-27.7%), 49,900 tonnes (-20.6%) and 282,200 tonnes (-17.8%) respectively.

"The production of Beans and Peas rose from 65,700 tonnes to 81,300 tonnes in 2023 (+23.8%) driven by an increase in the area sown of 5,400 hectares (+50.0%) and despite a reduction in the yield from 6.1 tonnes per hectare to 5 tonnes per hectare (-17.5%).

"The production of Potatoes dropped from 368,000 tonnes in 2022 to 322,200 tonnes in 2023 (-12.4%), based on a 3.3% reduction in the area sown and a 9.5% fall in the yield per hectare," she said.