Policies of Merchants Must Not be Allowed Drive Young Farmers out of Tillage Production
12 August 2009
Macra na Feirme, national president, Michael Gowing said young people are being given no encouragement to progress in farming and we are now witnessing this in areas of the tillage sector such as malting barley.
Mr. Gowing said young farmers are being turned off tillage farming by merchants and other processors' policies of dealing with market pressures by cutting prices paid to farmers together with the threat of a reduction in quotas in specialized crops such as malting barley. What signal does this give to our young people? Mr. Gowing asked. Are we trying to go down the road of the sugar beet industry, he questions.
'Young farmers in Macra na Feirme are looking for a viable tillage industry to be maintained into the future. They have invested large amounts of time, money and energy in the industry.
We hear a lot about the importance of getting young people into farming, but the key factor for young people weighing up their career options is the income they can make from their enterprise, and this is ultimately determined by price, and a premium price should be paid for a premium product.
Mr. Gowing said coupled with the pricing policies of merchants the government is also putting the nail in the coffin for young farmers with the ongoing closure of schemes and incentives for young farmers.
Young people are today receiving their leaving cert results and some are considering a career in agriculture, the Government and other interested parties in the agricultural sector need to be aware of the fact that we need youth in our industry and we need policies that encourage youth to join our largest indigenous sector.
