Family farms are ‘suffering from climate change and globalisation’

Globalisation of food supply chains, changing food policies, and climate change are all adding to the challenges faced by family farms, according to Teagasc director Professor Gerry Boyle.

He said the challenges are reflected in the family farm’s declining share of the population balance in recent decades. The 1971 census says 25% of households were headed by a farmer; in 2011 that figure was just 6%.

This change partly reflects a decline in the number of ‘farm households’, from 179,000 to 96,000 (-46%).

Prof Boyle said: “Family farms in Ireland are confronting a host of challenges and changes arising from globalisation of food supply chains, national and international policy developments, and climate change. These households have proven over time to be resilient in the face of substantial changes to farming.

“There are, however, a range of other, non-economic, developments that will affect the future of family farms. We need to understand how family farms have accommodated change in the past so as to best design supports for them into the future.”

2014 is the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation’s Year of the Family Farm, and Teagasc is hosting a number of national events as part of this programme, including a conference to examine the past, present, and future of the family farm in Ireland.

The conference, to be held at Airfield Farm in Dublin on Thursday, June 5, will bring together leading academics from a number of disciplines including, geographers, historians, sociologists, and economists.

The group will assess and evaluate the family farm and, in particular, explore how the idea became central to the identity of the state. They will also consider the implications of contemporary developments for family farms.

The conference is targeted at those seeking to understand more about Ireland’s social history, rural society, and how this may evolve given contemporary developments affecting farm families.

“Notwithstanding these developments, farms and farm households remain central to the rural and national economy and, more broadly, rural society,” said Prof Boyle.

“To get a better sense of what the future holds for farm households there is a need to understand their responses to past events and processes that have shaped their development over one or more generations.”

Further Teagasc events and initiatives to mark the Year of the Family Farm will take place this year, including a Teagasc and IFA national event on November 4.