Irish land policy is not delivering best results: a system like that in France might be the SAFER way to go
In other words, is the Irish land base delivering as much production, in as efficient a manner, and supporting as many jobs as it possibly can?
The answer here is surely no. You need only take a drive through any rural area to see a mix of farming activity — some farms appear very productive, and others seem to be bordering on wilderness.
Production is somewhat correlated to the profitable use of land, but there may also be genuine reasons why some farms may be falling short of potential productivity. Are under-worked farms blocking the potential of Irish agriculture as a whole? How can this be addressed?
If farmers are not willing, or not able to extract maximum economic production from their land, should they be subsidised on a short-term basis to improve production, or encouraged to exit?
The latest Teagasc national farm survey suggested that about one third of farm businesses are not viable, nor are they even in the potentially viable or vulnerable categories.
Should there be a shift to encourage these out of the industry? Are these farms diluting the capacity for growth of viable farms?
Productive farmers are restricted in their capacity to grow — given that the amount of available land that comes up for sale or for rent is so limited.
Farmers who wish to increase their farm holdings face high costs of expansion. Farmers compete against each other for land purchase, but are also competing against those with deep pockets looking to shelter monies left over from the sales of development land.
Farmers are also competing against hobby farmers.
There is even anecdotal evidence of outside investors buying up tracts of land, such as forestry, because land is now seen as a “must have” in an investment portfolio.
It has been suggested that there is room for changes within the tax system and the planning system. From a tax perspective, an “oversized” farms restriction of agricultural and business tax reliefs would take some of the heat out of the market generated by those reinvesting from development land sales.
Similarly, it could be made a condition of agricultural relief that the individual actually farms the land inherited.
It could be possible to restrict land ownership to a maximum or a minimum — this would root out speculators.
In France, premium agricultural land is less than half the price of premium agricultural land in Ireland, with prices of less than €4,000 per acre being common. In France, ribbon development and urban sprawl are almost non-existent, and the price of land reflects its agricultural value only. Separately, land sales in France are executed through a collection of regional government bodies known as the Sociétés d’Aménagement Foncier et d’Établissement Rural (SAFER).
SAFER was established in the 1960s with the aim of limiting the concentration of land holdings among wealthy landowners, and assisting young farmers. The effect is that land sales are regulated, and a seller may be obliged to sell to the state organisation, which in turn will redistribute the farm to local farmers, rather than outside purchasers.
In Ireland, we previously had the Land Commission, whose function was to redistribute land. Since 1923, 2.5m acres were distributed among some 150,000 beneficiaries, with over 2,000 families migrating to new holdings.
Previous land reform acts also catered for compulsory acquisition of agricultural land for redistribution from landlords to tenants.
Does Irish land policy need an overhaul? It’s a topic that’s gathering attention at Government level.
After all, land policy is most definitely related to the capacity of Irish agriculture to deliver on its 2020 ambitions.
