Future of farming - Cornerstone sector can celebrate

IN a world more characterised by change than ever before, farming, and the tens of thousands of jobs that flow from it, remains a cornerstone of this society and this economy.

Today, as the 80th National Ploughing Championships continue in Athy, Co Kildare, that constancy, that great contribution, is celebrated and how right it is that it is.

As so much of the world, and so many urban workers, feel the chill of recession, Irish farming is booming. As the eternal farming cycle — good years, then bad years and then good years again — turned one more time there are dramatic increases in farm incomes and agri-food exports. Because of soaring world food prices, driven by seemingly incessant demand, incomes have increased again this year following an extraordinary rise of 31% in 2010.