AQW 20308/17-22 Written question to the Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs for a breakdown of funding allocated to support research on methods to reduce emissions in farming.
Asked by John Blair MLA on 11 June 2021
- Answered
- Written
- Tabled
- 11 June 2021
- Answer due by
- 28 June 2021
- Answered
- 25 June 202114 days after tabling
- Priority question
- No
Answer
My Department has made very significant investments in research to reduce emissions in farming over a number of years. Since 2015 onwards, DAERA has committed £20.9 million to fund or co-fund 26 research projects.
A list of these research project titles and allocated funding is provided at Annex 1.
Annex 1: List of research projects relating to emissions in farming funded by DAERA
| Programme | Project Title | Year of Funding* | DAERA Funding Allocation |
| DAERA Evidence and Innovation Programme | New strategies for the abatement of odours and ammonia from animal housing. | 2015 | £63,069.31 |
| Evaluation of the potential for changing land use practices to encourage soil and grass carbon sequestration. | 2015 | £816,361.87 | |
| Land Use Change Modelling: Incorporation of the Wider Social Benefits of Forestry. | 2016 | £302,456 | |
| An evaluation of non-market values of ecosystem services in Northern Ireland. | 2016 | £258,734 | |
| Management of manure nutrients for sustainable grass-based dairy production in Northern Ireland. | 2016 | £524,027 | |
| Monitoring, modelling and mitigation of N and P losses from land to water under derogated and non-derogated conditions in the Colebrooke and Upper Bann Catchments. | 2016 | £1,286,832 | |
| Factors affecting the ecological recovery of Northern Ireland Freshwaters. | 2017 | £628,782 | |
| Review of Northern Ireland’s agricultural ammonia emissions, atmospheric ammonia deposition monitoring and modelling, and assessment of potential ammonia mitigation measures. | 2017 | £989,255 | |
| Evaluation of ammonia and greenhouse gas emissions from the livestock production sector in Northern Ireland. | 2017 | £2,683,493 | |
| Targeted agri-environmental landscape interventions exploiting SRC willow to mitigate the negative effects of sustainable intensification on water quality, energy use and the land-use nexus. | 2017 | £278,600 | |
| Decision support systems to support the management of nutrient on Northern Irish farms. | 2017 | £242,733 | |
| Mechanical processing of farm slurries and anaerobic digestate to facilitate nutrient redistribution through export of separated solids. | 2018 | £496,479 | |
| Monitoring and modelling of nutrient losses to water in agricultural catchments to evaluate the effectiveness of the Nutrients Action Programme (NAP) and the Environmental Farming Scheme (EFS). | 2018 | £4,027,047 | |
| Water Quality Prediction Models Impact DAERA Schemes (WQPMIDS). | 2018 | £776,297.95 | |
| Effects of reseeding and liming on soil carbon stocks under intensively managed grassland in Northern Ireland. | 2018 | £889,017.69 | |
| Reducing nitrogen excretion from dairy cows through dietary manipulation. | 2019 | £3,222,720 | |
| Treatments to Reduce Ammonia Emissions from Livestock Slurry Storage in Northern Ireland. | 2019 | £874,505 | |
| Assessing the ammonia emission abatement potential of Low Emission Slurry Spreading technologies and treated slurries for Northern Ireland. | 2019 | £1,018,129 | |
| Mitigation strategies to reduce ammonia emissions from poultry production systems. | 2019 | £559,627 | |
| DAERA Postgraduate Studentship Scheme (2015-19) | Effects of long-term nutrient fertilization and land use change on the carbon sequestration potential of agricultural grasslands. | 2015 | £60,000 |
| Effects of land use practices on C sequestration and their implications for tackling GHG emissions for the agri-food sector in Northern Ireland. | 2015 | £60,000 | |
| Life cycle environmental and economic impact assessment of pollution mitigation strategies for Northern Ireland dairy farming systems. | 2021 | £65,000 | |
| DAERA / DAFM funded | Manipulation and Integration of Nitrogen Emissions – to convert excess soil nitrogen to environmentally benign N2. | 2015 | £152,005 |
| Irish Land Use Emission and sequestration Support Tool. | 2015 | £107,309 | |
| Development and validation of novel technologies to reduce methane emissions from pasture based Irish agricultural systems. | 2019 | £235,497.72 | |
| Abating Ammonia in Agriculture. | 2019 | £373,543.40 |
*Whilst this is the year that the project was commissioned, the actual spend will be split over a period of several subsequent years.