Farming industry in “fragile” state as it faces CAP Review decoupling test
About 27% comes from EU direct payments and the remainder is earned by the farmer or his spouse from alternative enterprises or employment outside of farming.
For the “average farmer” income from farming is now the least important contributor.
Direct payments will no longer depend on farming production from next January.
There will be less incentive to farm, with all its endurance of regulations, rising costs and economic pressures, for the equivalent of one day’s income per week.
For some, there is no doubt the next 12 months will be a time of major decision and change. For others, affinity to the land and their love of working with nature and livestock will ensure that they continue part time in farming.
Latest findings from a UCD survey show that the industry which for generations was the backbone of the Irish economy is precariously hanging by a thread, through the family farm. Any industry which contributes only 14% of the income of its managers and owners is fragile.
The erosion of income from production for farm families was accelerated by costly demands for higher production standards. A fundamental issue has been raised by the UCD Faculty of Agriculture’s Professor Phelan, who delivered his startling finding that 14% of farm family income comes from farming, at a recent conference.
“Are European consumers willing to pay the price for the strict regulatory framework such as environmental pressures and labour costs that are attached to European farming? All of these regulations drive up the cost of production, and we must compete with world markets that have much lower production costs and can afford to sell their produce for less. This issue must be addressed going forward”, he said.
The real returns from farming have been masked by the survival instinct of farmers and their families to eke out alternative means of earning a living, as farm incomes declined. For many such families, farming is no longer important to their income. Is there any good reason why they should continue to work long hours producing cheap food, for a very low return for their labour?
