Agriculture

Adopting sustainable practices

Agriculture is extremely important on the Dingle Peninsula — a mainstay of rural life for generations.  We’re working with local farmers to make agriculture a more sustainable sector for the long term.

West Kerry Dairy Farmers’ SEC

SEC Fheirmeoirí Déiríochta Chiarraí Thiar

Creative Climate Action

Gníomhú Cruthaitheach ar son na hAeráide

Local Produce Initiative

Táirgí áitiúla

Ploutos Project

Tionscadal Ploutos

West Kerry Dairy Farmers’ SEC

Over 100 farmers joined together to form the West Kerry Dairy Farmers SEC, which is committed to exploring how the agriculture sector on the Dingle Peninsula can reduce its carbon footprint. The group undertook an energy master plan in 2021. Among its key findings:

  • In 2019, this farming community used over 10,000 MWh of energy, at a cost of around €1 million (and releasing over 2,900 tons of CO2).
  • Diesel is the biggest agricultural energy component (52%), costing €750,000.  Switching to biomethane could see a substantial reduction in energy demand.
  • Installing PV panels where the output is shared between homes and dairy barns could reduce energy costs.
  • Retrofitting farmhouses to B2 standard could reduce energy usage by 1,400 MWh and 360 tons of CO2.

 

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Two Farmers at West Kerry Dairy Farmers Sustainable Energy Community (WKDFSEC) get together in Dingle

Creative Climate Action Project

In this unique initiative, an artist worked with ten farming families to explore creative ways that community can reduce its carbon footprint in light of the global climate emergency.

Background and Objectives

Corca Dhuibhne Inbhuanaithe – A Creative Imagining is a project where local farmers, including the West Kerry Dairy Farmers’ Sustainable Energy Community, worked with artist Lisa Fingleton to look creatively at how farmers on the peninsula can address climate change.  Ten farmers from the community participated in the Creative Climate Action Project, working with Lisa through the end of 2022.

Dingle Hub managed the project, along with Catríona Fallon of the Green Arts Initiative in Ireland and Clare Watson of MaREI. 

Embedded Artist

Lisa Fingleton is an eco-social artist, writer and organic farmer. Living and working on a small organic, social farm near the sea, she has spent many years cultivating deep-rooted connections between art, food and farming.

Her book, The Local Food Project, explores the power of growing and eating local food. Lisa is concerned about the fact that we are importing so much of our food and losing the capacity to be self-sufficient, despite what we know about climate change and carbon footprint. For the last number of years, she has undertaken the “30-day local food challenge,” when she eats only food grown on the island of Ireland, for the month of September.

See Lisa’s website for more information on Lisa, her interests and projects.

Participating Farmers

Farmers in the creative climate action project

Ten farmers from the Dingle Peninsula participated in Corca Dhuibhne Inbhuanaithe, A Creative Imagining.  The farming families include: Padraig O’Dowd and Sharon O’Sullivan, Siobhán Prendergast and Tony O’Sé, Joe and Teresa Kelliher, John Joe Fitzgerald, Sean Kennedy, Thomas and Nora Greaney, Michael and Sandra O’Dowd, Niamh Foley, Aidan O’Connor, and the O’Cíobháin family – Seamus, Eibhlín and Lís.

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Local Produce Initiative

Dingle Hub is carrying out a feasibility study to develop short and sustainable supply chain business opportunities for primary producers of lamb, fish and vegetables on the Dingle Peninsula. The feasibility study is co-funded by the Government of Ireland and the European Union through the ERDF Southern, Eastern & Midland Regional Programme 2021-2027. The purpose of this study is to create sustainable business opportunities for primary producers, to assist with the barriers to market, to optimise their return and to have locally produced food available to purchase locally.

logos for "local produce" section

 

Read:

  • High Level Feasibility Report for Co-op Shop for Local Produce on the Dingle Peninsula [PPT]
Colorful vegetables on a market stand with a chalkboard sign that reads "Fresh Local Produce"

Ploutos Project

Dingle Hub ran one of 11 sustainable innovation pilots across Europe for the Ploutos project. This initiative built on and further developed the work carried out in the Farm Ambassador Pilot Programme.

The Ploutos Project aimed to improve the sustainability of farming by introducing technology-based decision-making. We installed sensor technology on 36 farms across the peninsula, which measured:
 
  • Weather conditions
  • Grass growth
  • Soil moisture and temperature
  • Milk tank height
  • Slurry tank height

 

The data from the sensors provided scientific evidence of emissions savings and added value to a range of products and services by:

  • using good environmental parameters to market goods from the area;
  • using localised, real-time weather data to tailor tourist packages optimised for changing weather conditions;
  • building a brand for the Dingle Peninsula to secure the region as a destination of choice, supported by data proving low food miles and low carbon footprint. 
 
We also developed a mobile phone app that translated the sensor output into clear data to help farmers make decisions.
 

Additional project objectives:

  • Encouraging new collaborations and enterprises across the value chain between farmers, technology designers, data analysts, food/service entrepreneurs and consumers;
  • Reducing carbon footprint on farms. For every 10-day extension in the grazing season, there is a 1.7% decrease in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
  • Increasing farm profitability and develop new income streams from higher value products. For every 10-day extension in the grazing season, profit ncreases by 27 euro per dairy cow
  • Working with 33 consortium partners through the Ploutos Innovation Academy

 

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Cow inspects a climate sensor on the Dingle peninsula