Farmers not keen to diversify, delegates told

THE VAST majority of farmers have no interest in setting up an on-farm business to boost their incomes, a conference heard yesterday.

Farm advisory body Teagasc asked almost 500 farmers how they would like to develop their businesses and just 2 per cent expressed an interest in setting up a diversified farm business such as tourism or food production.

Dr David Meredith of Teagasc told the National Rural Development Conference in Enfield that almost 60 per cent of farmers were interested in combining farm work with an off-farm job while 38 per cent said they just wanted to expand their existing farm businesses.

The research found that dairy and tillage farmers were more enthusiastic about expanding their enterprises. Most beef and sheep farmers felt their farm businesses were not capable of delivering enough income to support the farm household.

About one-third of farms in this State are categorised as being economically vulnerable. Such farmers are often encouraged to consider diversifying into areas such as tourism, organic farming, artisan food production or supplying farmers’ markets, to boost their incomes.

Dr Meredith said less than 2 per cent of farmers were currently running a diversified business on their farms. Most of these businesses were tourism-related. In the UK, almost a third of farms operate diversified businesses. Farm shops are particularly popular, but have not taken off in Ireland.

Dr Meredith pointed out that €16 million had been available under the National Rural Development Programme 2007-2013 to support farm diversification and create rural jobs. He said it was important that policymakers identified the factors that would motivate farmers to engage with such schemes.

He was speaking to 300 delegates who were attending the conference organised by the National Rural Network and Teagasc.

Dr Pat Bogue of the National Rural Network said farm families feared the idea of diversifying into something new or different.

“But we see many examples of new income-earning opportunities which have involved new approaches to core products such as direct selling of beef or lamb, sales through farmers’ markets or added-value dairy products.

“Therefore the main farm enterprise can be developed in tandem with a new income source,” he said.

Dr Bogue warned that the absence of off-farm jobs posed a major problem for tens of thousands of farm families.

His organisation is now embarking on a new research project which will examine how farm families can be encouraged to use their farm and family resources in new ways to secure their incomes.