Generational renewal the biggest threat to sustainability - former Macra President Thomas Duffy

Speaking at the Teagasc Sustainability Conference at the Ashtown Food Research Centre today, Mr Duffy said the next generation of farmers are struggling to appear in the sector.

"Generational renewal is the single biggest threat [to sustainability]. Absolutely we are in a climate crisis, I see it on my farm every day - droughts are getting more common," he said.

"That's going to put additional costs on our individual farm, with potential need for irrigation, drainage, etc, but you're not going to get a 75 year old farmer to do that. They are going to let their land go wild, because it's just not worth facing.

"If you do not have the next generation of farmers coming on, then you are not going to have the next generation of food producers, and agriculture will die out in this country.

"I don't want to be too extreme, because you always hear people going on about the death of rural Ireland. Let's not exaggerate though it is the slow death."

Mr Duffy said that the cost of farming becoming 'sustainable' was being borne by farmers, and that bargaining power generally occurred post farmgate.

"With the exception of co-operative movements, the only place where we get any negotiating power," he continued.

"We have a greater percentage of educated young farmers here than anywhere else in Europe, that's all wonderful, but we're no better off. Less farmers now have identified a successor, less farmers see a future for their farm. We can talk about economics, we can talk about everything else, but that is the reality on the ground.

"There is a deep nihilism that has moved in. A disparity and despair has moved into primary producers in that way. Why? Because we don't see any return. We are not getting paid for sustainability and in reality, we're talking about doing more all the time. We look at the CAP, in real terms it is reduced.

"The new EU Commissioner Agriculture has said we need to open new funds. The CAP we're currently in at the moment has been a complete failure for young farmers, and ultimately it has been a continuation of where it has been a failure for the environment.

"Why? Because it focused solely on the environment and ignored the policies that we needed to have across the entire supply chain, and because of that, we as farmers are having to do more, having to spend more money with absolutely no return?

"Everyone is telling us how important we are. Everyone is telling us how important climate is. No one is telling us how they're going to pay for the cost. I'm not talking about giving farmers more money for the sake of the poor farmer. I'm talking about, how are you going to compensate for the extra cost?"