Sixth year student Cian Hanrahan has used his Leaving Cert politics project to raise awareness of the declining interest in farming among his peers.

Politics students are required to complete a citizenship project that aims to promote active citizenship.

The student from Castletroy College in Limerick decided to focus his project on teenage social issues.

While other students in his class led with the angle of drugs, alcohol and social media use for their projects, Hanrahan took a different approach.

The sixth year student said he wanted to “go against the grain” and do something that most people would not think of.

That’s what led him to his project title: ‘How Farming is a Dying Art’.

Focusing on the decline of young people going into farming, the report highlights the many different barriers for young people who may be interested in farming, such as financial challenges and work-life balance issues.

But Hanrahan also wants his report to make it outside of the classroom.

The project, which had to be presented to a political representative was shown to Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Timmy Dooley.

Hanrahan hopes that the project might “evoke something in him to try that bit harder and do something.

“[Deputy] Michael Healy-Ray is going to send it to the minister for agriculture himself, so hopefully that might help as well.”

Farming interest

The project also included a survey of 241 senior cycle students on what they thought about farming and if they would ever consider it as a career.

Hanrahan was surprised by the number of people considering going into farming.

Of the respondents, 35.7% said they would maybe consider farming, while 14.9% said they were definitely thinking about it as a career path.

The student said that this shows that the interest is there, but the means to stay and farm in Ireland may not be.

He said: “I have relatives whose children have gone off to New Zealand and Australia for a few years.

"They make good money and, yeah, the better lifestyle over there, they feel it's easier to do it over there.”

In his project, Hanrahan points out that more promotion is needed in schools to help keep the agricultural sector alive.

He said: “If there was sort of a nationwide workshop or something in Transition [Year] that would lay out farming in a good sort of way as a possible career, if they did a farm tour or something, interactive students would remember that.

“If there's 30 people in the class and one person gets interested enough; in the whole country, that would mean an awful lot more farmers,” he added.

Possible responses

Hanrahan’s project highlights different responses to combat the lack of young people going into farming; however, when asked by Agriland, he said the most effective response would be better pensions.

According to Hanrahan, a huge issue for young farmers is the lack of land.

"Unless you inherit a farm, it can be very difficult starting off.

“If you're a first generation farmer, there's nearly no chance, like. You have to put so much money into it,” he said.