Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Martin Heydon has chaired the latest meeting of the steering committee for the Food Vision 2030 Strategy, which discussed the progress on last year's tillage report.

The Food Vision Strategy 2030 High Level Implementation Committee held its 14^th meeting today (Wednesday, June 25). The Food Vision Tillage Report (one of a number of sectoral reports released as part of the strategy) was published in May of last year.

The meeting discussed progress on the actions recommended in the report.

Also today, the minister launched Teagasc's AgNav Tillage digital platform, which is designed to gauge the carbon footprint of tillage systems and identify farm management actions to support water quality.

Minister Heydon said today: "I'm particularly happy to launch AgNav...and this further development of AgNav is another considerable milestone."

The minister also said: "Teagasc is doing fantastic work in the area of crops research, development and innovation.

"This is making a significant contribution towards achieving the ambition set out in the Food Vision 2030 Tillage Report and overall Food Vision 2030 goal of making Ireland a world leader in sustainable food systems.

In other tillage-related news, Minister Heydon and Minister of State for nature, heritage and biodiversity, Christopher O’Sullivan have announced a new €7 million open call for project proposals to support nature.

It comes under the European Innovation Partnership (EIP) measure of Ireland’s CAP (Common Agricultural Policy) Strategic Plan.

The theme for this call is to support nature in an arable environment along the coast from south Co. Cork to Co. Wexford.

Commenting on the calls for proposals, Minister Heydon said: “I am delighted to announce this call for European Innovation Partnership projects, with an overarching theme of supporting nature in an arable environment along the south coast of Ireland.

"Through this EIP, I would like to see farmers, ecologists, local groups, businesses and governments aligning to realise a vision for nature in some of the most agriculturally productive areas of Ireland," the minister added.