Building climate resilience on Irish farms

Adapting to climate change is a multifaceted issue for farmers. Research by Teagasc’s Rural Economy and Development Programme aims to better understand how farmers perceive adaptation measures for climate resilience.

Photo credit: Oleksii Kononenko/istockphoto.com.

Irish farmers are all too aware of the negative impacts of climate change on their farm operations, livelihoods and the environment. Led by researchers in Teagasc’s Rural Economy and Development Programme (REDP), the Farm Resilience Project sought to examine how farmers and advisors view these challenges. Combining evidence from a literature review, farmer surveys, interviews with farmers and advisors, and an advisor focus group, the study investigated what adaptation measures are currently being considered and implemented on farms, along with barriers and enablers to their adoption.

While many farmers recognise the need to adapt, the question remains: how?

“Our research showed that uncertainty around climate and policy developments is a key challenge for farmers,” said Research Officer Mohammad Mohammadrezaei.

“Building climate resilience and aiding farm-level adaptation will require more practical solutions, knowledge sharing and financial support.”

Disruptive impacts

The research suggested that farmers more frequently experience extreme weather events (droughts, storms, floods) and non-typical seasons (wetter/drier, colder/warmer). Farmers viewed these weather changes as a fundamental shift, going beyond the usual variations that they had managed in the past, often associating them with climate change. “Climate change is real, it is happening, the whole planet is warming up,” one dairy farmer said.

These changes challenge prevailing structures for organising and managing farm work, most notably through acute disruptions to the farming calendar. In addition to stress, worry and increased workloads, farmers reported sustainability concerns around animal health and welfare, water quality and biodiversity.

“It’s important to note that climate change impacts farm economic performance due to yield losses, increased costs and reduced margins,” notes Mohammad. “These negative impacts encourage farmers to act to improve climate change preparedness.”

Farm-level adaptation

To reduce climate impacts and vulnerability farmers are adapting to climate change with three main goals in mind: protection, prevention and recovery.

The farmers in the study reported implementing a range of adaptation measures, with a focus on short-term management practices that can easily be incorporated into daily farm routines. Examples included regularly checking weather forecasts, walking the fields before letting out animals and checking soil trafficability ahead of field operations.

Mid-term risk management measures were used to improve business planning amid uncertainty around weather and prices, and to build fodder reserves for longer winter periods and potential spring/summer droughts.

Farmers acknowledged the importance, despite financial constraints, of investing in suitable capital infrastructure to ensure sufficient housing space and slurry storage at times when the housing period is unexpectedly lengthened. Enhancing landscape features by letting hedgerows grow wider and taller and planting trees and hedgerows was seen as an effective means to improve shelter for animals, even if most farmers in this study were not actively pursuing these long-term measures.

Perceiving barriers

The research showed that adoption levels vary by practice and farmer. For some, a key barrier to adoption is the perceived difficulty in implementing new measures, alongside cost and labour requirements.

“Farmers also found it hard to confidently engage in mid-to long-term changes, owing to uncertainty around future developments in climate and policy,” Mohammad added.

Farm economic viability, succession planning, time horizons and age were perceived as both potential enablers of and barriers to adaptation. As one young dairy farmer, operating in partnership with his partner and his father, noted: “We know we have a clear path. Say we’re going to be here for the next 30 or 40 years, new slurry storage is going to be a long-term investment.” Conversely, a middle-aged beef-sheep farmer said, “I wouldn’t have considered putting that kind of money into new slurry storage, because I don’t know if any of my kids are going to do it and it’ll be all just sitting there.”

Learning by doing and learning from others played a significant role in accelerating farm-level adaptation. Farmers in this study experimented with measures such as multispecies swards, cover crops, and dairy-calf-to-beef systems to ensure their suitability to local farm conditions and learn from their application. They also had opportunity to learn from peers and farm advisors about adaptation measures, their implementation, and associated benefits and challenges.

Increasing support

In a context where climate change feels uncertain and new skills are needed to adapt, farmer social support is key; one-to-one advisor visits and discussion group meetings provide farmers with opportunities to talk about climate impacts and adaptation. Building stronger social connections through group talks, storytelling, farm visits, and demonstrations helps farmers gain confidence, share experiences and knowledge, and ultimately adapt to climate change.

However, advisors involved in this research explained that the climate adaptation toolbox is quite limited for them to effectively support farm-level adaptation; in recent years, the focus has predominantly been on climate mitigation. Advisors also highlighted the fast pace and scope of recent policy changes, sometimes leading to mixed messages and change fatigue for both farmers and advisors. Overall, they emphasised the importance of consistent messaging and the implementation of a step-by-step approach to support farm-level change.

The study also showed that farming grants and schemes continue to play an important role in supporting farmers and their businesses. Examples of these schemes raised by farmers in the context of climate adaptation include the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme, the Targeted Agriculture Modernisation Schemes, or the 2023 Fodder Support Scheme.

Future opportunities

Climate change may also offer some opportunities for Irish agriculture, the researchers noted. Some of the opportunities considered by farmers included cross-country learning from areas with a climate akin to Ireland’s predicted climate, trialling new crop varieties and species, and looking at future market opportunities as production systems fluctuate.

”Our research demonstrated that climate adaptation is at a crossroads between interconnected sustainability issues,” Mohammad concludes. “More work is needed to identify practical adaptation solutions that can simultaneously address multiple environmental challenges, such as climate mitigation, water quality and habitat preservation, while making economic sense for the farmer. Farmers and advisors play a crucial role in co-creating these solutions and ensuring that these are tailored to farmer-specific needs.”

FUNDING

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors would like to thank the farmers and advisors who voluntarily participated in the study. They also acknowledge the contributions of David Meredith and Áine Macken-Walsh (Teagasc) to the research. This research was conducted as part of the Teagasc Climate Centre.

CONTRIBUTORS

Mohammad Mohammadrezaei, Research Officer, Rural Economy and Development, Teagasc Ashtown.

mohammad.mohammadrezaei[at]teagasc.ie

Lorraine Balaine, Research Officer, Rural Economy and Development, Teagasc Athenry.

Sharon Sweeney, Research Methods Technologist Rural Economy and Development, Teagasc Athenry.

Maeve Henchion, Principal Research Officer, Rural Economy and Development Teagasc Ashtown.