A pioneering Galway farmer has joined forces with agri-colleagues across the country to contribute to a new book that combines scientific research with local knowledge, designed to give farmers and others practical tips on how to create a more sustainable future, while protecting land and nature.

And at a time of great challenge and uncertainty for farm families, the Farming for Nature Handbook is a practical guide to protecting and restoring nature.

It carries contributions from more than 50 Irish farmers, and also shares farmers’ experiences of how working with nature can help reduce costs and improve incomes.

Nia O’Malley, a beef farmer from Kylebrack, Loughrea, was one of the contributors. She is also a Farming for Nature Ambassador.

“Through working with Farming for Nature, I am amazed by all the larger more commercial farmers having those light bulb moments when they questioned all they were putting into their farms (not just fertiliser and chemicals, but also labour) weighed up what they got out of it in return, and then made the change and didn’t look back – less cost, better life, more time for family,” she says.

The book was conceived and developed by Brigid Barry, researched and mainly written by conservation ecologist Dr. Emma Hart on behalf of Farming for Nature and co-edited by Dr. Brendan Dunford.

Dr Dunford is a founder of, and volunteer with, the Burrenbeo Trust. He previously led the award-winning BurrenLIFE Project and its successor, the Burren Programme. He was previously awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Galway.

“Two thirds of our countryside is owned and managed by farmers, and we view these farmers as potentially a huge resource in addressing the biodiversity crisis that Ireland faces today,” he said.

“This has seen declines in most of our habitats and species – for instance, it’s estimated that we’ve lost 30% of our semi-natural grasslands in only one decade.

“To mobilise these ‘farmers for nature’ we need better funding but also better guidance, and this handbook will hopefully help inform the journey ahead towards a more sustainable future for our wonderful landscapes and those who farm them,” he added.

The book is beautifully illustrated with watercolours and sketches by farmer and artist Clive Bright as well as digital images by scientific illustrator William Helps – and the ambition is that the Farming for Nature Handbook will become the essential guide to caring profitably for the land.

At its core, it attempts to highlight the positive ways farmers can sustain and enhance our natural environment, and benefit from the results.

President Michael D Higgins described it as “a timely and essential contribution to the on-going discourse on how we, as a society, must respond to some of the most pressing challenges of our time”.

The book, which is launched this week, was inspired by regular requests to the non-profit Farming for Nature project from landowners, farmers, smallholders and growers wanting to learn how best to manage their land, big or small, in a way that enhances habitats, protects profits, and safeguards our natural environment and rural communities.

The Farming for Nature project itself was set up in 2018 as a non-profit project established under the Burrenbeo Trust, a registered charity – to support, encourage and inspire farmers who farm, or who wish to farm, in a way that will improve the natural health of our countryside.

And this handbook shares tips for a better farming future and shows how to manage land in a way that enhances habitats, increases wildlife and harnesses natural processes while protecting livelihoods, food security and profiles. It is not just targeted at farmers but is for anyone who wants to grow, garden and gather better.

The Farming for Nature Handbook, published by

Dingle Publishing, is available in good bookshops or can be ordered from

www.farmingfornature.ie.

Pictured: Contributor….Nia O’Malley from Kylebrack.