A significant one-day symposium on Upland Farming, organised by Teagasc and CAFRE, took place today, Tuesday, 12th November in the Ballymascanlon Hotel, County Louth.
Opening the Uplands Symposium, Paul McHenry, Acting Director of CAFRE said; “CAFRE and Teagasc have once again collaborated to bring together farmers, researchers and industry experts at this, the second Uplands Farming and Landscape Symposium. After the success of last year’s event it is great to welcome attendees to one of the border counties, giving the opportunity for a greater mix of representatives from both Northern Ireland and the Republic. Our hills and uplands represent a significant proportion of land across the island and we are keen to transfer knowledge around how they can contribute to help deliver environmental sustainability outcomes for our agriculture industry and wider society.”
Speaking at the Uplands Symposium, Professor Frank O’Mara, Director of Teagasc, emphasised the significance of the Upland Symposium as a platform for showcasing the diverse initiatives underway both within Teagasc and among various organisations. He said; “this event aims to enhance our understanding of upland farming systems and identify future policy opportunities for advancing educational and advisory initiatives, as well as fostering research developments”.
“The uplands are important,” Professor O’Mara said, “They play a very important role in sustaining the communities that live in the upland regions and they also play a role in terms of food production, carbon sequestration, water quality and biodiversity, so they are a very rich part of our island and something that we need to mind and to treasure.”
Dr. James Moran from the Atlantic Technological University gave the keynote address on ‘Upland farming systems for food and ecosystem services – a future policy perspective’. He provided an overview of the ‘Co-Centre for Climate + Biodiversity + Water’, a multiagency project, which will enhance policy support work through new research, before exploring policy, its future direction of travel and the importance of locally-led programmes in delivering change in upland areas.
Speaking at the event, Dr. Moran said: “The uplands have an essential role. When we focused on just purely food provision, or that was the overriding concern in our agricultural policy for many, many decades, these areas were seen as marginalised because they hadn’t the capacity to produce the same quantities.
“When you turn the dial on that, the uplands are able to contribute to food and fibre provision, while also being able to contribute to the whole host of other services that society depends on. We have to value the uplands for what they have been good at providing for thousands of years.”
In his concluding comments and sharing his key messages, Dr. Moran said: “We will have to transform our land use system as part of a wider integrated land use strategy. This will need a national land use framework that will enable local and regional implementation.
“Rapid change will be needed. Change is inevitable, climate will drive change, nature itself will drive change – business as usual is not an option, we need to be agile, adaptive, improve resilience, and capacity and trust will have to be built.”
Uplands Farmer
Delegates at the Uplands Symposium also heard details of the economic sustainability of uplands farms, the critical role farmers play in upland farming schemes and why their opinions and values are critical in the design and implementation of uplands schemes.
Amongst the key outcomes of the symposium was the importance of the not just farming systems, but also the "Uplands Farmer" in securing a viable future for our Upland systems and to ensure that a sufficient number of viable farmers are retained. This is essential so that the national and local heritage, knowledge and capacity is retained to continue the best available practices to protect our Upland farming heritage in parallel to maximising the positive environmental outcomes and benefits of uplands to local communities.
A key feature of the symposium this year across all speakers, built on the contribution of farmers and retaining farming systems in the Uplands. Dr. Emma Dillon from Teagasc Rural Economy and Development Programme highlighted the challenges of income viability, ageing farm household and generational renewal challenges that are just as acute, and in some metrics even more serious, on Upland farming households as they are across all farms. Numerous contributions from the audience highlighted the critical need that future initiatives in the Uplands focus on the future viability, and providing pathways for future generations of farmers to maintain these unique landscapes. The importance of recognising and engaging the local knowledge of farmers was also highlighted, and this was evidenced by the experience on the Comeragh mountains, presented by Teagasc advisor Catriona Foley.
Full presentations from the Uplands Symposium are available to view at www.teagasc.ie/uplands