Teagasc has announced the establishment of a rural innovation service aimed at assisting farmers to diversify within and outside of agriculture.
Addressing the National Rural Network annual conference in Croke Park, Dublin, Teagasc Director, Professor Gerry Boyle, said the service will have an initial staff of 12 rural innovation advisers who will be based at the organisation’s regional education centres.
He said the new service will have a strong focus on the development of entrepreneurial and business skills. It will focus particularly on what he described as the new generation of land owners who have a strong business focus.
Professor Boyle also told the conference that renewable energy will help Irish agriculture to cope with climate change as well as reducing costs of production. He said meat production in Ireland has a much lower carbon footprint than that from beef produced in Brazil and Argentina, a factor that should be taken on board when developing policies to mitigate emissions from agriculture.
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