IFA President, Mr John Donnelly, said yesterday that EU and State rural development programmes were not targeting low income farm families who urgently need financial support.
Speaking in Dublin at the launch of the IFA's proposals on rural development strategy, he called on the Government to undertake a major review of such policies to ensure that jobs created were sustainable and that low income farmers were afforded better access to rural development initiatives.
Rural areas would face "a very bleak future" unless the economic activity generated through the provision of more than £150 million in EU and State resources to rural development initiatives over the next 10 years had a lasting impact, said Mr Donnelly.
Studies of rural development programmes had shown that the uptake of rural development projects had been mainly by those rural dwellers, farmers and non farmers, who already had the greatest resources of capital expertise and education.
The IFA was putting down a clear marker to EU Commissioner Franz Fischler, who is due to address a major EU Conference on Rural Development in Cork next week, that "agriculture must continue to play a central role in EU policy on rural development," said Mr Donnelly.
He also called for a more balanced approach to rural areas in relation to regional development through the creation of rural renewal tax designated areas, which could benefit from investment for productive purposes.
The IFA's proposals included:
. The highest priority in the midterm review of EU Structural Funds must be in securing additional funds for the Control of Farmyard Pollution Scheme, Dairy Hygiene and Alternative Enterprise Scheme;
. the Young Farmer Installation Scheme grant be increased in line with inflation;
. the Early Retirement Scheme must be retained for farmers of 55 years and over as a key long term measure in an agricultural restructuring programme and the "enlargement clause" should be waived where the recipient farmer is engaging in a rural development initiative contributing to the viability of the farm;
. the EU establish a low income farm supplementation scheme to support low income farmers;
. a disadvantaged areas scheme must continue to be a priority within the overall Structural Funds.