Farmers' groups today urged the social partners to ensure that a new agreement would help improve their ability to compete on the international market.
Irish Farmers' Association president Padraig Walshe said he would be looking for assurances that regulation would not ruin the agriculture industry.
IFA president Pádraig Walshe
"We are not going to get any increases in our pay, that's not of any use to us as it is for the trade unions," Mr Walshe said. "But there are a number of regulatory issues that we have to get sorted out and also in terms of a few schemes that are affordable at farm level which will cost money, but there's a lot of issues that won't cost money."
Mr Walshe said he would be pushing for a framework for operating and improving the competitiveness of Irish agriculture. He he said there were a few areas direct where government funding could be used to support farmers in a way that European funding once did.
The IFA has warned it will withdraw support for an EU Directive on nitrates, which restricts the amount of manure farmers can spread on their land, if the partnership talks do not go someway to addressing their problems.
Mr Walshe said yesterday the regulations were "unworkable and damaging to all farmers".
Macra an Feirme called for the talks to secure a viable future for young people taking up farming as a career.
"Young people are looking at the farm as a business and assessing it on the same principles as any other business person," Macra national president Colm Markey said. "They want a return for their labour and capital and unless it can match what's available elsewhere in the economy they will not take it on."
The organisation's proposals include changes to the tax code, the operation of quota schemes and the production of non-food crops from land to encourage younger people to stay with the farm.