Low income farmers ‘facing extinction’

LOW income farmers are on the brink of extinction and the industry is set to reach crisis point in the immediate future, a rural development officer has warned.

Brian Lyons, smallholder development worker with West Offaly Partnership, said small farmers are living just above the poverty line and are simply “guardians of the land”.

He said many, with families are, are trying to survive on very low incomes — €15,000 a year or less, and supplements such as farm assist and EU subsistence, were keeping them off the poverty line.