Irish agriculture has been a staple of the country’s culture, economy, and identity. From the birth of farming to the crop expansion, the Great Famine to the Celtic Tiger, and the rise of modern agriculture, there have been many ups and downs in Ireland’s agricultural industry throughout its centuries of existence. However, the future of Irish agriculture looks to be bright and filled with technological advancements and updated methods. Research and equipment advancements are lending themself to modernizing and preparing to become more environmentally friendly as the world moves towards more sustainable practices, and new equipment will cut costs for working families across Ireland.

Ireland’s current agricultural sector has been bustling in recent years. According to Ireland’s Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, the agricultural work sector employs roughly 173,000 people in Ireland, making up 7.7% of the total national employment, and contributed about €13.7 billion to the national export economy in 2018. A large factor in these increases in profit and employment was the introduction of state of the art equipment. Four and two-wheeled tractors are the most commonly used farm equipment in Ireland, and backhoes, loaders, cultivators, cultipackers, threshers, and rollers have also been introduced en mass within the past 15 years.

The main goal of farms and agricultural companies moving into the future will be sustainability. For example, one feed and nutrition company, Alltech Ireland, is working with local animal crop farmers wanting to help reduce their farm’s personal carbon footprint by checking on several focal points in order to increase and improve the efficiency of each individual farm. These focal points include assessing the farm, assessing rumen health, feed values, and forage quality. Since the majority of CO2 emissions come from the methane from a cow’s rumen, assessing the rumen’s health and the nutritional value of the cows’ feed is essential to beef and dairy farms across Ireland. This is a sentiment shared by a majority of the country’s agricultural workers. According to the World Wildlife Fund, Ireland became the first country to commit to third party-verified, 100% sustainable food exports in 2012. Since then, Irish farms have managed to reduce biodiversity loss, improve animal welfare, and increase the amount of land farmed organically.

 

Sources:
Donnellan, Trevor, et al. Future Scenarios for Irish Agriculture: Implications for Greenhouse Gas and Ammonia Emissions. 2018.
“Ireland and the Future of Sustainability | Magazine Articles | WWF.” World Wildlife Fund, 2015, www.worldwildlife.org/magazine/issues/summer-2015/articles/ireland-and-the-future-of-sustainability.
“New Farming Equipment Has Arrived in Ireland.” Www.irishfarming.ie, www.irishfarming.ie/farm-machinery/#:~:text=New%20Farming%20Equipment%20in%20Ireland%201%20Tractor%20Tractors. Accessed 10 Apr. 2023.
Team, Agriland. “A Practical Approach to Sustainable Irish Farming.” Agriland.ie, 8 Dec. 2020, www.agriland.ie/farming-news/a-practical-approach-to-sustainable-irish-farming/#:~:text=A%20practical%20approach%20to%20sustainable%20Irish%20farming%201. Accessed 10 Apr. 2023.
The Future of Irish Farming: Ag Science Student on Why Agriculture Can Be Part of the Climate Change Solution – Extra.ie. 1 June 2020, extra.ie/2020/06/01/news/real-life/future-irish-farming-climate-chane#:~:text=Irish%20agriculture%20is%20developing%20to%20focus%20on%20what. Accessed 10 Apr. 2023.