New thinking is required in rural development where farmers are already in a minority, Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs Eamon Ó Cuív said yesterday.
Speaking at the Irish Rural Link annual conference in Carrick-on-Shannon, Co Leitrim, he said by 2015 there would only be 105,000 farmers, 45,000 of whom would be non-viable and would be relying on off-farm income to sustain themselves.
In the future there would be a core of 40,000 viable farms. No matter how much money was invested in developing agriculture, the scope for income increase was limited.
What was needed in rural areas was a full spectrum of jobs, with a high quota of highly skilled jobs. He expected highly qualified young people working at the cutting edge of technology to want to return to rural Ireland.
There was a call for greater tax reliefs and grants to be given to rural enterprises.
Chief executive of Rural Link Seamus Boland said rural counties had suffered setbacks in recent years, with manufacturing businesses closing due to problems competing with lower-cost economies.
The IFA protests outside the State's largest lamb processing factories are to continue through the weekend, IFA president John Dillon said yesterday.
He said the "revolt" by sheep farmers, which has closed down the industry at an estimated cost of €5 million per day since last Tuesday, would continue.
It had been expected that the protests over prices paid by factories for lambs would have ended last night.
Yesterday, a Meat Industry Ireland spokesman said the forced closure of the factories was causing unnecessary losses.