We need a new vision for rural development

THE fact that agriculture and rural life were given such scant attention in the mainstream public debates that have taken place during the general election campaign is a statement in itself.

It is also a worrying reflection on a growing trend that appears to relegate what is in effect a €20 billion industry almost to the status of any other business in public discussions.

That’s not to say the sector was ignored by the political parties, because all of them published policies on farming, the food industry and rural development in general.

Detailed submissions were also made to the parties by the farm and rural lobbies.

The Irish Farmers Association, headed by its president, Padraig Walshe, organised meetings where candidates were put through the hoops on their proposals for the sector.

Yet the agri-sector, which remains an important part of the rural economy, despite radical structural changes, didn’t grab the headlines as the election discussions understandably focused in the main on health and crime. That led to Eddie Punch, the general secretary of the Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers Association, drawing attention to what he said was the tendency in recent years to forget about the country’s most important indigenous industry based on a renewable natural resource.

He suggested this was due mainly to the fact that so much economic development had been linked to construction growth and foreign direct investment.

But he warned that construction would slow and predicted that other countries, especially in Eastern Europe, would compete aggressively for foreign direct investment.

European Union plans to harmonise taxes also have ominous implications for further multinational investment here, he said.

Against that background, Irish Rural Link (IRL), the national group campaigning for sustainable rural communities, studied the election manifestos of all the political parties and came up with some interesting observations.

It claimed the manifestos strongly suggest that there is an absence of vision for the future of what it described as “post-agricultural” rural Ireland.

IRL chief executive Seamus Boland said all the political parties have included proposals on rural development. But none have produced policy suggestions which indicate that they have grasped the scale of transformation rural Ireland has undergone over the last decade.

Farm numbers have plummeted, former farmers are seeking employment in low-skilled industries, young people are migrating west to east, and there is semi-suburbanisation of some villages and the total decline of others.

A radical reappraisal of the needs of rural communities is required.

A new rural development White Paper is essential.

“However, the main political parties still believe that rural Ireland can survive on the basis of generous agricultural supports and very limited support for the wider rural economy and society,” he said.

That debate on the future of agriculture and rural Ireland in general will grow in the next year as the EU prepares for a health check on the workings of the Common Agricultural Policy and on how best to deal with future challenges that are posed by world trade reforms.

Meanwhile, in an increasingly urbanised society, many people do not have an awareness of the link between the farm and the food they eat every day.

That’s why initiatives by Agri Aware, set up by the industry in 1996 to educate the general public about the importance of agriculture in Ireland, are worthwhile and should be encouraged.