Increasing the Resilience of the Food Systems
In Islamic States in Face of Future Food Crises
79
Food for All initiative is funded by a number of government bodies—including the Department
of Social & FamilyAffairs, Population Health (HSE), SafeFood, and the Food Safety Authority of
Ireland.312 The Community Food Initiatives—funded by SafeFood—seek to improve eating
habits of families in low-income communities by providing better access to affordable and
healthy food at a local level. SafeFood is committing €630,000 in funding for the Community
Food Initiatives from 2019 to 2021.313
In 2012 and 2013, farmers in Ireland had to resort to using external feed due to a low growing
season; Ireland provided those farmers with fodder imports’ subsidies to compensate.314 In
2016 and 2017, the Agriculture Cash Flow Support Loan Scheme gave farmers access to low-
cost flexibleworking capital finance toadjust to the negative effects of the Sterling exchange rate
change and lower commodity prices in some agricultural sectors. The Farm Assist initiative
provides weekly payments to low-income farmers aged 16 to 66. The Rural Social Scheme
provides additional income to farmers and fishermenwho are recipients of other social welfare
payments, including Farm Assist, in return for an assigned number of hours working on local
community projects like maintenance of walking routes or care of older people. Funding for
farmer support schemes provided by DAFM amounted to €659 million in 2017.315
Building Resilience
Acknowledging the importance of research and development for building resilience , the
Department of Agriculture, Food and theMarine committed €95.1 million to R&D in 2017 .316 It
is important tonote that the private sector funding R&Dacross all sectors outpaced government
expenditure, with total private sector funding reaching an estimated €2,391 million in 2017,
significantly more than the €142 million in government funding.317 A number of government
initiatives focused on innovation and encouraging R&D, including the National Food Innovation
Hub, the Prepared Consumer Food Production (PCF) Centre, and the Food Starter Program. The
National Food InnovationHub, established by the Agriculture and Food Development Authority,
provides incubator services for innovation in dairy companies, in addition to R&D services for
food processing, quality, and nutrition. The Prepared Consumer Food Production (PCF) Centre,
funded by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, enables companies to test
specialist processing and packaging equipment to scale up their production. The Food Starter
Program provides new food businesses with guidance in the early stages of food production,
including for product research, gaps and opportunities analysis, branding, production costs, and
distribution.318
Given the importance of rural infrastructure and transport services for diversifying livelihoods
and increasing resilience, Ireland is expanding its investment in these areas. The National
Transport Authority’s Local Link Rural Transport Program improves rural transport and
312 “Healthy Food for All Initiative – Ireland.” EPHA. 200
313 Safefood website.
314 “The impact of climate change on dairy production.” Feb 2017. Safefood.
315 “Annual Review and Outlook for Agriculture, Foodand theMarine 2018.” DAFM. 2018.
316 This figure includes R&D expenditure by bodies under DAFM, such as TEAGASC and theMarine Institute.
317 Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation. 2018. The Research and Development Budget (R&D) 2017-2018.
318 “Steps to success 2018.” FoodWise 2025.