Some 5,767 farmers have stepped away from full-time farming in the last decade, according to the latest Central Statistics Office (CSO) analysis.

CSO data shows that some 75,223 farmers reported farming as their sole source of income in 2010, while 69,456 did so in 2020.

The figures equate to a drop of 8% and in quantitative terms, would equal the total number of farmers in Co Wexford.

However, the CSO also reports that just under 278,600 persons contributed to farm work in 2020.

In 2010, this total farming workforce was 272,000 and comparing the start and end of the last decade indicates an increase of 6,600 or 2.5%.

Furthermore, when comparing the total farming workforce to CSO figures from the year 2000, the total number farming has increased by 20,600 or 8%.

The CSO figures show that while there may be more people working on farms in the 20 years since 2000, fewer are doing so on a full-time basis.

Demographics

The CSO figures also show that males accounted for 73% (203,467) of the persons working on farms in 2020 and females accounted for some 27% (75,113).

However, when comparing the figures for actual farm holding owners, 87% (113,316) were male and 16,900 (13%) were female.

Meanwhile, the percentage of those who reported to own a farm in 2020 who were 35 years old or younger was 7% or 9,917.

In quantitative terms, this equates to the total number of farmers in Co Donegal only.

Almost one every three farm owners in Ireland is older than the national retirement age

All other farmer owners are older than 35 with some 42,319 or 32% over the age of 65.

This data shows that almost one in every three farm owners in Ireland is older than the national retirement age.

Some 47% of all those who worked on Irish farms in 2020 actually own the farm they worked on, according to the CSO.

Meanwhile, 41% were the spouse or a family member of the farm owner and 12% were not related at all.

Farm succession

The CSO data for 2020 also shows that less than half (46%) of farm holders had a succession plan in place and 98% of these had named a family member as the successor.

Farmers in the southeast of the country had the highest rate of succession planning, with some 49% of farm owners in the region reporting to have done so.

Farmers in the border region had the lowest rate of succession planning at 41%.

Of those farm owners with a succession plan in place in 2020, 82% (49,024) planned for a male to take over their farm, while 16% (9,759) planned for a female to take over and 2% (1,302) planned for their farm to be shared.

Read more

Young farmer numbers a ‘ticking timebomb’ - Macra president