Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 26 October 2022

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Vision for the Future of Irish Farming: Macra na Feirme

Mr. Liam Hanrahan:

The first thing we could do, and what Macra na Feirme continues to do, is promote integration between farms. Getting the systems to work together would be the first step and then farmers could diversify into different sectors within their own farms quite easily. We have many policies and incentives on how to do that and on integrating land between dairy, beef, and tillage farmers, which we have put forward in submissions. It could be very easily done and be very workable. As Mr. Keane pointed out, we require investment for implementation and that is it. When we have investment and implementation, the next generation will allow diversification. Going back one step, ticking the boxes was mentioned. Young farmers actually want to tick more boxes in order to get more. The most important thing for us to outline here is that we are very much willing to work with what needs to be done and will tick more boxes for a little bit in return.