Farmers ‘cannot survive on direct supports and must diversify’

FARMERS can’t continue to survive on direct supports and need to diversify into new, less dependent, land-based enterprises.

That’s the view of Irish Rural Link (IRL) which said that this requires rural development spending to give direction to the wider rural economy, ensuring the children, spouses, brothers and sisters of farmers can gain local employment.

It said all future rural development funding programmes need to be sector neutral and focus on job creation and the long-term sustainability of the rural economy instead of subsidising declining sectors.