Commission for renewal needs young farmers

The Tullamore Show is a great place to float an idea, to see how it sticks with the farming community. With the Dáil in recess, it’s not such a competitive environment in August. So we could consider Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue’s proposal to set up a commission on generational renewal in farming as the equivalent of a GAA county manager trying something different during the league.

That doesn’t mean the idea is without merit. Far from it, we desperately need to grasp the nettle of the demographic of farming.

But if a commission to explore what needs to happen to encourage young people into the industry is to be established, it needs to be significantly populated by younger people.

We need this commission on generational renewal to have a decent sprinkling of people who are connected to the emerging generation, and not by being their parents.

What are the key issues for farming? I think we can all identify those. Income is key; there would be no shortage of farmers if the average annual income was €50,000, rather than half that figure.

The average farm is probably too small to deliver a full-time income, and part-time farming alone won’t halt the ebbing of the suckler herd. This infers that expansion is required on many farms. The problem here is that non-farming interests are outbidding farmers, especially younger farmers on smaller holdings, for land. This commission will definitely have to consider a revamp of our transfer tax regime, as it currently attracts wealthy people into land ownership.

Morale

The morale among farmers is also a live issue.

An Taoiseach Simon Harris, who would still qualify as a young farmer, articulated this in Tullamore, saying “farmers are fed up of being demonised”.

Farming is still potentially a rewarding career choice, and the sheer number of children and young adults in Tullamore either preparing and showing animals or watching them was a reminder of how deep the connection still is.

But the toxic debate among a minority around the ethics of food production is a drain.

The final piece of the jigsaw was articulated by IFA president Francie Gorman on Sunday, when he said that “the best way to secure the future of the next generation of Irish farmers is to secure the future of the current generation”.

Handing over a business requires farmers to have an income to fall back on, and unfortunately, the pension status of a lot of farmers is not wonderful.

We probably will need push-and-pull incentives to allow older farmers to step away.

Something like the farmer retirement scheme might be in order, particularly for smaller farmers with little security or assets apart from their holdings and stock.

Plenty to be going on with, this commission will be busy.