Minister Poots was speaking at the 'Agriculture and Climate Change: A Countryside COP event' at CAFRE's Greenmount campus, jointly organised by DAERA and the Ulster Farmers' Union in advance of COP26.
As well as discussing the work farmers already do, Poots also reiterated his belief they are up to the challenge to deliver both food and environmental outcomes in a sustainable way.
"Today's conference participants heard about the work my Department and others are leading on to help support the industry on its decarbonisation journey and also the practical examples of ways farm businesses can and are reducing emissions, for example the ARCZero project and the work being led by CAFRE on carbon calculators," Minister Poots said.
"At this moment in time, agriculture, along with transport, energy and buildings are amongst the big emitters of greenhouse gases in Northern Ireland. Whilst this presents our industry with significant challenges, I believe there are also many opportunities - including the potential for the agricultural sector to contribute to address these challenges."
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Calling for Northern Ireland to take full advantage of the opportunity to develop a sustainable agricultural industry, Minister Poots added: "It is my focus, and that of my Department, to ensure that we have sustainable agri-food, fisheries and forestry sectors; which help to create a clean, healthy environment that benefits people, nature and the economy in alignment with the Executive's Green Growth approach.
"With this in mind, I am delighted to announce the launch of a new Soil Nutrient Health Scheme for Northern Ireland. This is an innovative and forward looking soil sampling and carbon analysis scheme aimed at building from the ground up by putting an increasing emphasis on improved soil nutrient health and farm carbon, and I will be making this scheme available to all farmers.
"When operational, the new scheme will - for the first time - provide farmers with detailed information on soil nutrient levels for every field on their farm – along with an estimate of the amount of carbon stored in their soils, hedgerows and trees.
"My Department has successfully piloted this concept, which is why I’m confident that providing farmers with detailed information specific to their own lands, will help them farm more sustainably. Further details on the soil scheme will be made available next month."
Poots concluded: "To achieve success we must work together, not only across government – but also businesses, industry and civic society across all sectors. It is important that Northern Ireland plays its role in supporting the UK to deliver both a successful COP and achieving UK Net Zero."
