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Brendan Kearney on The Past, Present and Future of Irish Agriculture

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About this Event

23 Nov 2010 @ 12:45

Podcast:
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About the Event:

At this roundtable meeting of the IIEA Economists Group, Brendan Kearney addressed the changing role of agriculture in the Irish economy since the country joined the EEC in 1973.

He noted how the sector's importance (as a percentage of GNP, exports and labour force participation) has inexorably declined since then, and put this trend in the context of an evolving domestic and EU policy agenda and a transformation of the Irish economy.

Mr. Kearney presented data on the make-up of the work force in the sector, Irish land usage and prices, and farm incomes, structures and outputs. Among this very interesting data was the fact that the price per hectare of arable land in Ireland rose from roughly €5k in 1990 to €12.5k in 2000 to €50k in 2007, before falling back by 50% by 2009.

He then examined the evolving economic and structural impact of the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and evaluated the possible impacts of the Government's Food Harvest 2020 Strategy and the European Commission's recent White Paper on the CAP post-2013.

He concluded that although in the short and medium term the Irish agricultural sector will probably have to make do with less support from both national and Community sources, it may prove to be more insulated from the current budgetary and economic difficulties than other sectors. This is because there are at least reasonable market prospects for the agri-food sector and the farm labour force is mainly self-employed (even if its remuneration tends to be comparatively low). However, unless inherent defects in the structure of Irish farming are addressed either by way of the land market or by fiscal/legislative inducements, impediments to land mobility and dynamism in the sector will remain, posing a major constraint to development.

About the Speaker:

Brendan Kearney is an agricultural policy and economic consultant and formerly Assistant Director of An Foras Taluntais (The Agricultural Institute) and Head of its Rural Economy Research Centre.

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