Solutions for a sustainable agriculture industry in Northern Ireland

Green Growth Deputy Director at the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs Jonathan McFerran talks about the steps the Northern Ireland agriculture industry is taking to safeguard its future while making environmental improvements and meeting climate targets.

McFerran asserts that, similar to the Republic of Ireland, the agriculture industry is a key sector in the Northern Ireland economy.

Illustrating this, he says Northern Ireland produces enough protein to feed 10 million consumers despite its total population of 1.9 million, adding that the agri-food sector employs 113,000 people. However, he indicates that this level of agricultural activity has resulted in documented “negative impacts on the environment”.

McFerran says Northern Ireland produces almost 10 million tonnes of slurry and has an annual excess of 6,000 tonnes of phosphorus from agricultural sources every year. He explains that this poses risk to waterways and the environment, demonstrated by the findings of the Lough Neagh Report published in July 2024. McFerran says: The RePhokUs report identified that high nutrient (phosphorus) levels in Northern Ireland waterbodies have three main sources – 62 per cent of the phosphorus inputs are from agriculture, 24 per cent from wastewater treatment works and 12 per cent from septic tanks.

Generational change

Creating a sustainable agriculture industry is one of the priorities set out by the Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) in the recently published Corporate Plan 2025-2027, along with decarbonisation, and net zero targets. McFerran suggests that biomethane production can be part of the answer to achieving these priorities.

He highlights the importance of the development of a biomethane strategy. This will help to provide direction to companies as they seek to transition from fossil fuel gas to biomethane to meet sustainability standards and climate targets. The Climate Change Committee has identified a role for biomethane production as an enabler for assisting Northern Ireland’s transition to meet targets within the Climate Change Act.

McFerran outlined the draft Green Growth Strategy, currently under consideration and its commitment to reaching net zero targets, make environmental improvements and create green jobs in a “strong circular economy”.

For the agriculture sector, development of anaerobic digestion (AD), biomethane production, and the management of excess nutrients will be central to this. Regulation will also be key, as highlighted in the Lough Neagh report which identifies education, investment, regulation, and enforcement as the four key pillars for action.

Actions

In 2023, DAERA launched a Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) competition under the Sustainable Utilisation of Livestock Slurry Project (SULS) to find solutions to nutrient separation from slurry and digestate. Under phase one, six companies were awarded £100,000 each to investigate proof of concept models with this aim.

In phase two, £12 million will be awarded to three of these companies to progress their concepts. Two companies have already been awarded contracts, the first of which was County Down-based firm, Blakiston Houston Estate Ltd for their project, Farm2 Export.

McFerran explains that the project removes excess phosphorous in slurry by separating it into liquid and solid fractions using a mobile separator. Liquid slurry created in this process produces less emissions and has better nutrient uptake by crops than unprocessed slurry.

Solids derived from the process are used to produce a suitable feedstock for anaerobic digestion to produce biogas. McFerran explains that the digestate produced by the AD process needs to be processed further and not simply land spread. As part of this project, a biofertiliser plant is needed to convert this nutrient rich digestate into an exportable bio-fertiliser.

Under the second project, the Centre for Competitiveness, leading a conglomerate of companies in Mid-Ulster, aim to construct a 10 MW biorefinery to produce biomethane to be injected directly into the grid. McFerran says they will also process separated livestock slurry through anaerobic digestors and use the resulting digestate to produce biochar to be used in the cement making process and also to capture phosphorous in concrete products, so it can be locked away. He indicates the importance of the location of this project, in terms of helping to manage excess nutrients in the Lough Neagh catchment.

“This will help develop our circular bio economy while reducing nutrients in Lough Neagh and other catchment areas, improving water quality in our rivers, loughs, and lakes,” he claims.

McFerran says the development of a biomethane strategy “will be key to building on the positive start of the Sustainable Utilisation of Livestock Slurry Project, ensuring a holistic and strategic approach is adopted”. The ongoing collaboration between DAERA and other Departments, is a positive step forward in tackling this complex issue.

He says the SULS project is already showing potential for significant positive outcomes: “SULS has the potential to improve our water quality, improve our management of nutrients, support achieving climate targets whilst continuing to support a sustainable agriculture sector.

“This project is an excellent example of green growth in action, and we should grasp the opportunity to expand this approach for the good of the agriculture sector and the environment.”