ENACT – Evaluating National And EU Comprehensive Targets in Organics

What does expanding organic farming mean for Irish agriculture?

Ireland has experienced a rapid expansion in organic farming, supported by the Organic Farming Scheme and wider national and European policy. However, setting a target for the area farmed organically is only the first step. Policymakers also need to understand what achieving different levels of organic adoption could mean for agricultural production, farm incomes, environmental sustainability, land use and the wider agricultural sector.

ENACT is a DAFM Policy and Strategic Studies project designed to address this evidence gap. The project (commencing in December 2026) uses the developing organic sample within the Teagasc National Farm Survey (NFS), existing sustainability indicators, economic modelling and stakeholder expertise to assess alternative trajectories for expansion of organic farming in Ireland.

Objectives

Rather than considering organic targets only in terms of hectares converted, ENACT takes a whole-system perspective. It will examine how different levels and patterns of organic expansion could affect: agricultural production, farm income and economic sustainability, environmental performance, social sustainability, the distribution of organic farming across enterprises and regions and the policy supports required to achieve different trajectories.

From individual farms to national policy

The NFS organic sample provides evidence on how commercial organic farms operate. ENACT builds on this farm-level evidence by modelling the scaling of different patterns of adoption across Irish agriculture. Alternative scenarios will allow policymakers to explore the consequences of different organic farming trajectories before those changes occur. Stakeholder and expert knowledge will complement quantitative analysis where reliable national datasets are not available.

The project therefore provides an important connection between farm-level research and national policy, while also complementing the wider Teagasc organic research programme: GROFarmS provides technical and economic evidence on existing organic farms, FARM examines an important supply-chain constraint around organic feed, and ENACT asks the broader strategic question: What happens to Irish agriculture if organic farming continues to expand and what combination of production, market and policy conditions is required to make that expansion sustainable?

The resulting scenarios will provide an applied policy assessment of the economic, environmental and social implications of alternative pathways for development of Ireland’s organic sector.