Agri Food 2010 Committee

Main Recommendations

18. Maximising the Sector’s Contribution to Sustainable Rural Development

The capacity of agriculture and the food industry to contribute to sustainable rural development is important to the Committee’s vision of the future.

18.1: Addressing Farm Household Viability

• Future policy should be focused on farm household viability in all its dimensions, including farm and off-farm income sources.
• Government policy should aim to create and maintain viable farm households through:
• developing new approaches to supporting income from farming activities;
• providing targeted income support for the poorest farm families; and
• policies which create and maintain off-farm employment opportunities in rural areas.
• There is a lack of data in relation to total farm household income, but such information is now vital for policy making. Teagasc and the CSO should address this problem.
• More information could also usefully be collected about household members – level of education, off-farm employment, commuting patterns, contribution to farm enterprise, etc.

18.2: Developing New Approaches to Farm Income Support

• The options for achieving coherence and simplification of the various direct payments schemes should be regularly reviewed by DAFRD.
• The Department should monitor implementation of the new French Loi d’Orientation and assess its usefulness in the Irish context.
• Research should be conducted on the existing systems of agricultural insurance in other countries and the possible application of such a scheme in Ireland.

18.3: Tackling Farm Poverty

• The reduction of rural poverty should continue to be a key objective of the NAPS, which is currently under review.
• A specific target should be set for reducing poverty levels in low-income farm households. Progress against this target should be regularly reviewed and the results published as part of the NAPS process.
• The Farm Assist scheme should be monitored carefully, particularly in its first few years of operation, to assess its impact on the poorest farm households.
• Disadvantaged area payments to farmers, which have a major income support objective, should be targeted towards low-income households.

18.4: Encouraging the development of Off-farm Employment Opportunities

• The successful implementation of regional policies will be crucial in providing off-farm employment opportunities in rural areas.
• The Committee welcomes the commitment in the National Development Plan to spread the location of enterprises, especially inward investment.
• In regions that have the highest dependence on part-time farming, particular attention should be paid to distributing investment to smaller centres. This approach should also be reflected in the National Spatial Strategy.
• Similarly attention should be focused on any areas affected by the necessary process of rationalisation in the primary food processing sector.
• Measures to support the competitiveness and expansion of other productive sectors, such as tourism, should also be given priority.

18.5: Contributing to Environmental Protection

• Substantial effort and public funds have been committed to agri-environment measures but the reality of continuing pollution impacts, and the nature of our new EU and international commitments, means that further measures will be needed.
• Special training and advisory services should be used as a key tool in educating farmers about the link between agricultural practice and pollution.
• A ‘Code of Good Farming Practice’ should be developed by DAFRD in consultation with the Department of the Environment and Local Government.
• The Committee would stress the need for strict implementation of environmental standards for all industry.
• There should be a fair and balanced approach to drawing up the National Abatement Strategy on foot of the commitments in the Kyoto Protocol.
• The measures decided on under the Abatement Strategy will need to be integrated into the overall development strategy for the agri-food sector in due course.
• A greater effort is required through education, the provision of appropriate facilities and the enforcement of litter laws to deal with the litter problem.

Home