Agri Food 2010 Committee

Main Recommendations

19. Facing the Challenge of New Technology

Developments in Information and Communication Technologies are transforming the context in which all participants in the agri-food sector operate, and are creating important new opportunities and challenges for retailers, processors and farmers. At the same time biotechnology has emerged as a major issue of public debate and it too has the potential to bring profound changes to the sector.

19.1: Responding to the development of Biotechnology

• The future of our agri-food sector requires that we develop a strong competence in the new technology that is emerging so that we have the ability both to apply and to regulate it.
• The Committee welcomes the provision of £560m for a Technology Foresight Fund in the National Development Plan and the separate provision of a £25 million Technology Capability Fund for Teagasc. A significant share of the Foresight Fund should, in the Committee’s view, be earmarked for biotechnology agri-food research.
• The Committee agrees that we should pursue a positive but precautionary national policy position on the release of GMOs to the environment, based on scientific risk assessment and management.
• Clear labelling of foods to indicate whether they contain GMOs is essential to consumer confidence and necessary to a full recognition of consumer rights.
• It will be necessary to develop systems to ensure that GMOs do not compromise the integrity of organic, or other non-GMO, production systems.

19.2: Developing Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in the Agri-Food Sector

• Retailers, processors, farmers and Government agencies will all be fundamentally affected by the future development of ICT. Only those who make the effort and investment needed to stay abreast of these developments will survive in the longer term.
• Rural industries and rural areas have more to gain from the new technology than those in less isolated locations.
• While the potential of the new technology is clear and widely acknowledged, the Committee is concerned that action is slower than warranted given the pace of ICT developments elsewhere.
• The Information Society Commission should pay particular attention to ICT applications in rural areas and in indigenous industries.
• Trade organisations, including retailer, processor and farmer organisations, in the agri-food sector should establish expert groups to examine ICT developments, and to identify and promote best practice.
• The major initiative in the NDP to encourage indigenous companies to adopt IT and e-commerce as intrinsic tools of business is welcome. Implementation of this commitment should include both specialist and management training in ICT. Companies may also require assistance with necessary capital investment, and provision should be made for this under the relevant funding elements in the NDP.
• DAFRD, Teagasc and other State agencies should become leaders in ICT applications, both because of the efficiency improvements this will produce and the encouragement it will provide for others in the sector to match these developments.
• It is important to ensure that rural areas are not allowed to fall behind in the development of the necessary infrastructure, including broadband access, for the latest ICT developments. The new National Rural Development Forum should monitor this issue carefully.

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