The annual Macra agricultural conference was opened yesterday (October 28) by the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue.
Held at the Shearwater Hotel in Ballinasloe, Co. Galway, the theme of the conference was ‘Feeding our Future’, with the topic of generational renewal and support for young Irish farmers being key aspects.
Minister McConalogue said: “Succession and generational renewal remains a challenge at both national and EU level, and indeed as a global challenge for agriculture.
“To ensure the agri-food sector remains strong and sustainable into the future, supporting young farmers will continue to be a key priority for me and the government,” the minister said.
Macra conference
The need in Ireland for young farmers, and young women farmers in particular, was highlighted by Minister McConalogue in his speech at the conference yesterday.
“While farmers may be the bedrock of our agri-food sector, young farmers are the innovators and technology adopters, the early adapters, the pioneers and the leaders who will take us on the change journey that we must all travel over the course of the next decade.
“I am proud to be the first minister to have a specific focus on supporting women farmers in the CAP (Common Agricultural Policy),” Minister McConalogue added.
The Minister for Agriculture referred to measures including increased grant aids for women, the promotion of women-only knowledge transfer groups, and for CAP interventions to be conducted with the involvement of women.
Minister McConalogue also mentioned the measures to aid all young farmers in the sector, including reliefs for farmers in farm succession, for farm loans, and land leasing.
“All of these exciting and important new initiatives will contribute to the participation and success of young and women farmers in improving the long-term sustainability of the agri-food sector in this country,” he added.
Generational renewal
Essential to the future of farming, according to Minister McConaloguue, is the consideration given to older farmers, as well as young farmers.
Minister McConalogue said: “It is also important to recognise that there is more to generational renewal than incentivising young farmers and that it is equally important to consider older and retiring farmers.”
Macra president Elaine Houlihan said: “We need a paradigm shift to our current model of thinking to achieve generational renewal, relying on an inheritance model will not result in meaningful change to the number of young active farmers entering farming.
“Switching to a succession model which Macra is proposing, focuses on getting young active farmers involved in viable farm businesses in the right place and at the right time,” Houlihan said.
The importance of the future of farming in a sustainable way was mentioned by the minister, who called upon young farmers to play an integral role in doing so.
Minister McConalogue said the “great challenge of our generation and, arguably, the biggest challenge facing our sector” is to meet “our climate ambitions while continuing to be a world-leading food producer”.
“We as a country therefore rely on you to take a leading role so that our world-class dairy, beef, sheep, pig, poultry, and tillage sectors can continue to develop and grow sustainably for future generations,” he added.
Forgotten farmers
At the conference, Minister McConalogue was asked about the group known as the “forgotten farmers,” which the minister gave an assurance that the forgotten farmers have not been forgotten again,
The forgotten farmers are a group who had typically set up their agricultural holdings before 2008 and who were under the age of 40 in 2015 but did not qualify for the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) supports as had other young farmers at that time.
“The forgotten farmers are having difficulty believing that they will be remembered, their case has been running on and on for several years,” the Macra president said.