It is four times cheaper to subsidise and maintain a farm family on the land than to subsidise them in a new urban environment, the Minister of State for Agriculture and Food, Mr Noel Davern, said yesterday. Presenting the 1997 Family Farm of the Year Awards at the EU Offices in Dublin, the Minister said the pro-farming lobby in the European Parliament had generated these figures some years ago.
The cost of housing and providing facilities for a family moving to an urban area was probably higher now, he said.
Mr Davern said the task of stabilising and revitalising rural areas which had suffered significant population loss was very urgent and one to which the Government was committed.
Pat and Mary Clarke and their family from Stamullen, Co Meath, won the overall award in the competition sponsored by the ASA, the European Commission and the Irish Farmers' Journal.
The regional winners were: Vincent and Mary Gorman, Athy, Co Kildare; Gerry and Margaret McNulty, Oranmore, Co Galway; and John J. and Mary Barrett, Ballinee, Co Cork.
Mr Davern said the Rural Environment Protection Scheme was increasingly influential in family farming.
The president of the Agricultural Science Association, Mr Peter Byrne, called on the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh, to provide a detailed policy paper on the future structure of Irish farms and farm families.
He said the ASA was concerned about the increasingly important role that part-time farming would pay in the future development of agriculture.
"We now have over 40,000 commercial farmers who have developed and expanded their farms into profitable economic units. However, we have over 80,000 other farms which at this stage cannot be considered viable entities," he said.
Mr Byrne said the 80,000 farmers either had to sell or lease their land or become part-time farmers, and that highlighted the need to identify jobs for the sector.