Gillian O’Sullivan: Scientific experts need to work with local farmers – and value their input – or we’ll never solve anything

I wanted to examine areas that are already working well and look for the reasons for their success.

In order for farmers to adopt new management practices, it is important to understand how changes have been successfully implemented in other projects. Farmers are creatures of habit.

Recently an online clip of Dr. Mike Ryan of the World Health Organization. He said: “Something special happens when research and scientific expertise meet local knowledge, local communities and local innovation.”

Although he spoke about infectious diseases, the same applies to tackling farming challenges in Ireland.

We have many successful examples of positive outcomes with this approach. BurrenLIFE has been recognized at EU level as the best LIFE project in the programme’s 25-year history.

EIPs have been extremely successful in addressing localized challenges related to environmental issues such as biodiversity conservation in the BRIDE project.

Both have taken the approach of bringing together the expertise of the right people with the local communities and designing a suitable programme; the intersection of scientific best practice with local, practical know-how.

These projects have generated approval and created a space for engagement, knowledge transfer and solution finding.

The argument is that this approach is difficult to scale and only works for certain challenges specific to a given domain.

But we already have a working version of this approach, which has the potential to be expanded, in the Agricultural Sustainability Support and Advisory Program (ASSAP).

ASSAP was established in 2018 as an advisory program targeting 190 priority areas for water quality alongside LAWPRO (Local Authorities Water Programme).

20 water quality consultants were sourced from Teagasc and the cooperatives funded another 10 and met with producers in the affected watersheds.

There was an impressive 96 percent engagement rate from farmers in the program.

Findings from research conducted in parallel with ASSAP on farmer attitudes and behavior revealed that most people wanted to do their best but felt isolated and ill-equipped when it came to water quality.

ASSAP’s approach was crucial: a non-judgmental, confidential space to enable collaboration between those with water quality expertise and local farmers.

The farmers valued the input from the advisors and vice versa. That respect was essential.

EPA’s most recent water quality report has noted improvements (albeit small) in areas where ASSAP has operated in a short time frame.

The expansion of the ASSAP program is so important, but limitations remain in terms of training farm advisors and creating decision support tools to tailor farm, land and nutrient management advice to individual farms.

Also, a farmer at the Nuffield conference pointed out that while improvements in water quality in certain areas were due to the hard work of farmers and advisors, this was not recognised.

At a time when farmers are so scolded for failing on environmental issues, there is silence when successes are documented.

The old Irish proverb comes to mind, mol an óige agus tiocfaidh siad — Praise youth and it will thrive.

Gillian O’Sullivan farms with her husband Neil near Dungarvan, Co. Waterford