The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) have, following discussions with representatives of the pig and poultry industry, agreed a new approach for the control and management of pig and poultry manure from Integrated Pollution Prevention Control (IPPC) licensed installations.

More farmers should be allowed to enter a scheme that would pay them to make wildlife-friendly improvements.

On his six-hectare farm in the village of Keisen, on Japan's Kyushu island, Takao Furuno, 61, grows rice and wheat without chemicals.

The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Simon Coveney, TD, has announced an extension to the closing date for applications under the 2012 Bioenergy Scheme.

Farmers exiting the REPS 3 scheme urgently need the reintroduction of the AEOS 3 scheme, according to the IFA.

Northern Ireland Agriculture Minister Michelle O’Neill has confirmed her plans to extend agri-environment scheme agreements that have not yet ended and are due to terminate before January 2013.

Dairy farmers who, up to now, have compared their farm against the neighbour's farm in terms of litres of milk, fertility and EBI, will soon have a new measurement to work off.

The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Simon Coveney TD, has announced the publication of a Guidance Document supporting the recently introduced Environmental Impact Assessment (Agriculture) Regulations (SI No. 456/2011).

Northern Ireland Minister Michelle O’Neill has welcomed the issue of the Agriculture and Forestry Greenhouse Gas Stakeholder Group’s Reduction Strategy and Action Plan.

Analysis by the EU Commission's DG Agri shows that the cost of complying with the new greening measures contained in Commisioner Dacian Ciolos's reforms will hit Irish farmers by an extra €22/ha.

Simon Coveney TD, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, has announced the launch of the 2012 Bioenergy Scheme to grant aid the planting of willow and miscanthus crops as part of the re-opening of a range of Targeted Agriculture Modernisation Measures.

Reacting to the announcement last week by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin on Department of Agriculture spending for next year, IFA President John Bryan said the cuts to REPS 4, and changes to the terms and conditions in Disadvantaged Areas and Farm Assist, are a direct hit on farm incomes and come on top of all the other cuts that have been imposed on households.

Innovation, market management measures and eco-friendly farming ideals must be central tenets in the new Common Agricultural Policy, according to the Irish Co-operative Organisation Society (ICOS).

IFA President John Bryan has urged international negotiators that are participating in the current climate change talks in Durban to recognise the flaws in the Kyoto Protocol, which takes no account of the carbon sinks associated with grassland and forestry, or of the increasing demand for food by the growing international population.

"A significant number of farmers and  forestry owners will benefit from the introduction shortly of a new Renewable Energy Feed-In Tariff (REFIT) to encourage the generation of electricity from biomass sources", the Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Shane McEntee TD, said.