A Galway East TD has said that farming in Ireland needs to be adjusted to ensure we have full production for our food industry.
Seán Canney TD said that farmers must be encouraged to grow more crops to make sure that we have ‘sufficient fodder to feed our livestock and food to feed our people’.
“With this in mind, I am asking Government to get a derogation to change the CAP rules to allow crops to be grown on set aside land,” said Deputy Canney.
“We need to focus on food production for people and livestock and if the 4% rule of land to be set aside was changed to allow for crops such as oats, wheat and barley to be grown it would provide feedstuff to feed livestock over the winter.”
Deputy Canney said that we can still support biodiversity with this type of mixed farming.
“In order to achieve these goals farmers must be supported in the initial years with upfront payments for seed and fertiliser,” he said.
“We have to re-invent the wheel and we also now need to understand that farming is our source of food and when you have a war situation in Europe, we again appreciate the positive roll farming plays in all our lives.”
