A second job can never be accepted as Government farming policy
Today, “alternative” sources of income to supplement the return from farming are being sold as the solution for viability on small and medium scale holdings.
How times have changed!
Part-time farmers have shown, to their credit, that they are capable of greater efficiency in farming than many of the larger operators. Maybe they had to be for survival, and the benefit of another source of income for investment also helped them to thrive under pressure.
But it is important that fundamental issues in part time farming are not forgotten.
There are still anomalies that should be teased out if part time farming is to become the best way of keeping people on the land.
Exclusion from various agricultural aid schemes, because of off-farm income, is a remaining barrier, which must be addressed if the way forward is to encourage as many part time farmers as possible.
Part time farming and holding down an outside job is an additional workload and may only be a period of limbo for the farm, while the off farm income is being established to the point of providing a living income.
Once a farmer becomes established in off-farm employment, there must be incentives to put in the additional hours in keeping the farm going too.
Also, how is the combination of off-farm employment and farming to be regarded; as one or two jobs?
For the majority, part time farming has developed more out of necessity to make a living than out of a love for the burden of holding down two jobs.
A second job should never become the accepted Government policy for farmers.
Like any other sector, they are entitled to get a reasonable income from a normal working week.
When civil servants, teachers or Gardaí demand an increase, they are unlikely to be told that they can take a second job in their off time, as the solution. Very many of them do have other sources of employment, but that is their choice.
Neither should total income criteria be used to decide that all is well down on the small and medium size farms of rural Ireland, simply because figures show that they are making a living by working long hours and sacrificing their leisure time.
There are many on the land who have a love for it, an appreciation of a quality of life in the countryside, and who will take whatever measures are open to them to eke out a living, while continuing to live and work on a farm.
