Sinn Féin MLA Declan McAleer has criticised the Agriculture Minister's response to an Assembly question he submitted on carbon sequestration, saying it fails to set out how farmers will be recognised for the carbon sequestration and wider environmental benefits they already deliver through their land management practices.

The party's agricultural spokesperson said: ''Farmers deserve clear answers on how their long-standing environmental work, including maintaining hedgerows, planting trees, protecting permanent grassland and other carbon sequestration measures that capture and store carbon on farms, will be recognised, and the Minister's response raises more questions than it answers.

''The Minister's response fails to answer the central question that was asked. Rather than detailing how farmers will be credited for existing carbon sequestration measures, such as hedgerow management, tree planting and the protection of carbon-storing farmland, the answer focuses on data collection, carbon measurement and the possibility of future market opportunities.

''Farmers across the north have already invested time, effort and resources in maintaining hedgerows, planting trees and delivering environmental benefits. They have a right to know whether these actions will be recognised and rewarded. The Minister has outlined how sequestration might be measured, but has not explained what, if any, credit farmers will receive for it.

''The Department must now provide a clear pathway showing how existing carbon sequestration will be accounted for and how farmers will benefit from the value they are creating. Without that clarity, farmers are being asked to participate in a carbon footprint project that measures their contribution without explaining how that contribution will be recognised.

''Until that clarity is provided, farmers will remain concerned that their environmental contribution is being recorded but not properly rewarded. The Department must clearly set out how these existing carbon sequestration measures will be valued and how the farmers delivering them will share in the benefits.''