Irish agriculture then and now
Irish agriculture and food production is synonymous worldwide due to the high standards it holds that have given it the positive name it holds globally.
The agri-food sector is Ireland’s oldest and largest indigenous exporting sector, extending across the country and reaches over 180 countries worldwide.
Irish agriculture in the last 50 years
Going back only three generations, the Irish people all had links to a farm and knowing exactly how and where the food they consumed was produced.
As time passed, one of two things happened. Small family farms who produced much of what they consumed on their farm, grew in size or on the other side worked away from the farm.
Small family farms in the last 60-80 years have become extinct from having a cow that produced milk to drink and make butter to having beef animals, pigs and poultry that would supply families with red meat and high protein sources.
Alongside the animals on the farm, there would be some form of tillage crops and vegetables sown as well.
However, as the population grew in Ireland and with that the economy and more job opportunities, the demise of small family farms that in many ways were self-sufficient started to decline.
Urbanisation saw more people live in town and cities across the city and a tough economic period in the 1980 saw a large proportion of Irish people emigrate to find work.
All of this coupled with a booming economy in the late 90s and early 2000s with the arrival of multinational companies and a booming construction sector saw Irish farm sizes grow in scale but get smaller in terms of the number of farms.
However, despite this, the above drivers of booming economy have ebbed and flowed and come and gone, but Irish agriculture and family farms, of which there are now over 135,000 remain and continue to feed a growing population both domestically and globally.
Irish farming enterprises
Irish farming is bigger than just the primary producers but wouldn’t exist without those who farm the land 365 days of the year every year.
Irish farming enterprises include a number of different enterprises such as:
All of the above production systems can be found on the island of Ireland in various capacities.
In the case of all, whether it’s farming the land to produce vegetables and crops, or tending to livestock, farmers take the utmost care of the soil they till and the animals they care for on a daily basis.
Irish agriculture at present
Irish farming remains in a strong place with over 135,000 farms across the country but comes with its challenges.
Ireland has a strong a name worldwide
Ireland has a strong a name worldwide for the standards it holds itself to from an animal welfare and husbandry standpoint, to the quality food it produces thanks to the farmers who produce right up the supply chain to those who advocate and promote that produce in foreign markets.
Irish agriculture and farmers are always faced with obstacles from day to day to year to year and that is no different at present.
Today’s challenges are environmentally focused ones, brought about by policy changes from the European Union.
Irish farmers are tasked with continuing to produce food and maintain a viable farming enterprise while at the same time implementing environmental measures on their farm to become more sustainable to reduce emissions.
From 2010 to 2020, brought upon by Food Harvest 2020, the focus, after a time of economic downturn, saw agriculture and food production come to the fore with where the emphasis was on increasing production at primary level on farms and at export level.
This vision and confidence given to farmers by policy makers regards Food Harvest 2020 saw a surge in growth at primary level, with farmers increasing production on farms across sectors.
In recent years, post 2020, the shift, particularly with the release of Food Vision 2030 supported by the Common Agricultural Policy 2023-2027 has moved away from production targets and more so on environmental targets.
This shift in focus from production predominately to a shared focus of having a sustainable balance between food production and environmental targets as laid out by new policy is now the major challenge on farms.
The challenge as already mentioned is for farmers to maintain a viable enterprise while also playing key role in protecting Ireland’s climate and environment – a role that farmers have always done and taken on from generation to generation.
As the world population continues to grow and the area of land for food production not correlating to that increase, the reliance on farmers to grow food as they have done throughout the course of time will be as important as ever.