20 August 2024

Mapping a course

Teagasc’s Better Farming for Water campaign aims to support the agri-food sector to improve water quality across Ireland’s catchments. To learn more, TResearch spoke to a researcher on the campaign, Daire Ó hUallacháin.

Daire Ó hUallacháin is a Principal Research Officer in the CELUP programme at Teagasc Johnstown Castle. His background is in zoology, following which he progressed to a PhD in farm ecology, and a stint in consultancy, before joining Teagasc. Today, his key research focus areas are around biodiversity and water quality.

Analysing aquatic ecology is an important tool in assessing water quality, explains researcher Daire Ó hUallacháin. Photo credit: Fergal O’Gorman

Can you explain the background of this campaign?

Water quality is a key topic since water is a vital natural resource. Under the Water Framework Directive, Ireland has ambitious and challenging targets for safeguarding water quality. Chief among these is the goal for all waterbodies to reach ‘good’ status by 2027. Approximately half the waterbodies in Ireland are achieving good status at present.

We have seen encouraging improvements in water quality in some catchments. However, this is offset by other catchments deteriorating – hence, overall water quality across Ireland has not improved in recent years. Water quality in Ireland is impacted by multiple sectors; agriculture, as the country’s dominant land-use, has a key role to play in improving water quality. Against this backdrop, Teagasc has launched the campaign Better Farming for Water – 8-Actions for Change.

How has this topic evolved over the years?

There has been significant progress; a huge development in the understanding of water quality processes, in the mapping of waterbodies and risk – by Teagasc and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), among others – as well as developments in mitigation techniques.

Along with these changes on the research side, we’ve seen land-use and agricultural actors gain an increasingly enhanced understanding of water quality factors. We’re seeing much greater interest in protecting local water quality, especially from farmers – a crucial audience – but also from the public more widely.

So, this public awareness is a key element behind the campaign.

What are the challenges surrounding this topic?

There are multiple factors at play here, both anthropogenic and environmental. Achieving water quality objectives is a slow process and requires the engagement of multiple different stakeholders. A major challenge in achieving good water quality is the lag time; it takes a while for the environment to respond to mitigation measures. Another notable challenge is the trade-offs between mitigation measures – we need to develop measures that are as beneficial for water quality as they are for issues like biodiversity and carbon.

One example would be how we manage riparian margins; these are buffer zones running adjacent to rivers or streams where little to no agricultural activity takes place. Correctly managed, these can be effective in reducing surface water runoff or pollutants from entering waterbodies.

On top of that, you’re dealing with environmental variables such as changing climactic conditions – so you’re attempting mitigation measures against a shifting backdrop. However, the activities we’re now implementing are based around a long-term approach.

On the outreach side, there’s the ongoing task of ensuring impactful knowledge transfer and communication with relevant stakeholders and audiences. Knowledge transfer and building awareness are key pillars in Better Farming for Water.

What impacts is this topic having?

Overall water quality in Ireland is seeing no significant improvement, according to data from the EPA, which monitors catchments on an annual basis. The biggest stressors we see are nutrient and sediment losses to watercourses – primarily, nitrogen (N) in better drained catchments, and phosphorus (P) and sediment in more poorly drained catchments.

Sediment is a more physical stressor, degrading aquatic habitats and impacting life in the watercourse. Nutrients N and P can impact aquatic habitats by promoting excessive plant growth.

On a positive note, some catchments are improving. Improvements have been seen following integrated activity from Teagasc’s Agricultural Sustainability Support and Advisory Programme (ASSAP). Elsewhere however, we’re still seeing excessive loss of nutrients and sediment to waterways from multiple sources.

In terms of policy development, this campaign aims to support water quality policy objectives. We need to see greater resources directed towards water quality improvement, as well as integration of policy directives. Engagement with policy and wider stakeholders is an important element of the campaign, as seen in its key pillars.

What research have you been doing in this field?

I’ve been undertaking environmental research for nearly 20 years, but more recently I’ve focused on assessing the impact of excessive sediment on aquatic ecosystems – both sediment in isolation and sediment with phosphorous and nitrogen – and how this affects stream ecology. I have also been assessing the effectiveness of mitigation measures for water quality, and wider ecosystem services.

Much of what I do is about assessing and developing tools for the right measure in the right place, being cognisant of synergies and trade-offs. One example, our new AgriBirds project. This looks at green cover on winter stubbles with an aim to reduce nitrogen leaching during winter months; but if you were to remove winter stubbles to improve water quality, this could have negative impacts for farmland birds. So, it’s a very complex policy environment, with multiple policy objectives, and we need to keep this in mind when identifying synergies and trade-offs.

What has the industry response been?

There’s now heightened awareness and eagerness across the agri-food industry to tackle water quality challenges. We know we need a multi-actor approach and greater stakeholder engagement; more resources are being directed at this, whether at catchment scale, or with advisors at ASSAP level. We’ve seen a very positive response, which is encouraging. It reflects a desire for action, both at policy level and at ground level from landowners.

What comes next?

We need to identify and assess cost-effective measures to reduce N, P and sediment. Research is needed to identify synergies and trade-offs for environmental and production services. Further research is needed to integrate learnings from bio-physical research with socioeconomic research and production research, i.e. a multi-actor approach, to enhance the performance and adoption of measures.   

Up close and personal 

What’s your favourite animal? Asking an ecologist what their favourite animal is, is like asking them to pick a favourite child! That said: farmland birds, such as the skylark or yellowhammer, or birds of prey.

If you hadn’t ended up in research, what other job would you have wanted to give a go? Either 2nd or 3rd level education.

What are you most proud of professionally? It’s encouraging that water quality research has been used to inform policy and practice.

Find out more about the ‘Better farming for water – 8-Actions for Change’ campaign at this link: Better farming for water