The Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) will host a webinar this week to look at the "key issue" for farmers in 2022 - namely input costs.

The webinar will be titled 'Input price challenges - impact, outlook and strategies to mitigate'. A number of notable persons will be involved who will assess the year ahead and provide strategies to offset rising costs.

The webinar will be held this Thursday (January 20). It will begin at 8:00pm.

IFA president Tim Cullinan said this morning (Tuesday, January 18) that Irish farming is "facing a very challenging year as the cost of doing business threatens to wipe out some modest gains".

"We need the European Commission, government and industry to respond quickly and offer tangible financial supports, such as the removal of EU anti-dumping duties and low-cost finance options, to minimise cashflow pressure on-farm," Cullinan added.

The guest speakers will include Liam Woulfe, CEO Grassland Agro; Rory Deverell, risk consultant with StoneX; David Wall, Teagasc Research Officer; and Liam MacHale, IFA European office director.

The speakers will provide an outlook for fertiliser markets and feed inputs; strategies to mitigate the increased cost of fertiliser; and possible EU interventions.

"We have already seen several member states introduce various financial support packages for their respective pig sectors. I'm calling on Minister [for Agriculture, Food and the Marine] Charlie McConalogue and his officials to look at similar measures, not only for the pig sector, but for those hit by these phenomenal input price surges," the IFA president said.

He added: "As an industry, we celebrated the announcement of record agri-food exports last week. It can't be forgotten that all this product originated from farms through the hard work of farm families.

"In the interim, we hope that this virtual event will provide some practical insights and tips to help farm families overcome these challenges," Cullinan concluded.