Ireland is facing “a demographic crisis” due to a 40 per cent decline in the number of young farm managers since 2005, according to Macra na Feirme president John Keane.
Just over five per cent of farmers are aged under 35, while 30 per cent of farms are owned by farmers over 65 years, said Mr Keane.
“This transition towards a more sustainable agricultural sector and rural areas requires Ireland to address one of the most important social challenges for European agriculture – generational renewal,” he revealed.
“There is an absolute need and pressure to ensure that demographic is reversed and changed,” he added.
Mr Keane outlined the main challenges for young farmers saying more favourable access to land and finance are needed.
He has called for an on-farm succession scheme to be included in the CAP Strategic Plan along with funding for the Land Mobility Service to be included.
Macra Head of Advocacy and acting CEO, Derrie Dillon, said the association’s Land Mobility Service has identified approximately 30,000 family farms without succession plans for an identified successor.
LSL News.