Bord Bia pulls award funding despite report recommendation

Bord Bia has pulled its €25,000 funding of the Farming for Nature Awards, despite an internal report recommending the sponsorship continue and that Bord Bia should further promote the event and concept.

Bord Bia had sponsored the awards since its inception in 2018. The awards were established to recognise farmers who have achieved exceptional results for nature on their farms and to create ambassaorrs who encourage others to follow suit.

However, following the 2022 awards, Bord Bia commissioned a report into the Farming for Nature awards to access its impact and relevance to the general farming population.

The internal report, seen by the Farming Independent, states that the 80 ambassadors “are doing very positive work for nature across different farm enterprises. The building of the network of ambassadors should continue, as should Bord Bia’s sponsorship of the awards which is critical to their development.”

The report’s recommendations included a call for new nominations each year, to keep the momentum going, and that Bord Bia’s farm auditors be able to nominate farmers for the awards.

According to the report “an important consideration for Bord Bia is the extent to which farmers who are members of the Quality Assurance Scheme/Origin Green are represented in the Ambassador listing”. However, the trend among farmers nominated and shortlisted that were also members of Bord Bia’s Quality Assurance scheme was consistent at 41pc, but the number of ambassadors who were also QA farmers was as low as 19pc in 2019 and 33pc in 2022.

A number of organisations are eligible to nominate farmers, but the report also pointed out that 75pc of farms nominated by Farming For Nature ambassadors, which made most of the nominations, were not Bord Bia quality assured.

In a statement, Bord Bia said a review of all budget requests, including sponsorships, is standard practice as part of its planning process and during its 2024 budget planning process it was decided to redeploy the budget to other initiatives this year.

“Bord Bia recognises the excellent work of the Farming for Nature programme, and its ambassadors, and we will continue to foster a close working relationship with them and the wider Burren Beo trust.”

A spokesperson for Farming for Nature said they were surprised and disappointed by Bord Bia’s decision but remain grateful for their past support.