Teagasc and Dairy Sustainability Ireland has published an interim report into the work of the Agricultural Sustainability Support and Advisory Programme (ASSAP).

The ASSAP programme is a new collaborative approach to improving water quality with funding and support provided by dairy processing co-ops.

The programme at its heart, is providing farmer focussed advice across 190 priority areas for action. While the programme is in its early days, the EPA has reported positive improvements in water quality across the areas for action in 2018 and 2019.

The ASSAP programme (to 31^st December 2019) has held extensive farmer and public engagement with 111 community meetings and 77 farmer meetings taking place since the programme’s establishment in 2018. The programme has completed 1,168 farm assessments over the period with farmer engagement in the programme extremely high at 96%.

The programme has improved knowledge on the issues affecting water quality across the categories of land management, nutrient management and farmyard management with sedimentation a much greater issue than previously thought.

ICOS is pleased to support the programme and contributes to the programme’s work at the farm consultative committee.

The interim report can be viewed here

Eamonn Farrell – Agri Food Policy Executive