The key to keeping many farmers in the west and north-west is to bring more industry into those regions and allow them to farm on a part-time basis, according to a regional development officer with the IFA.
Mr Adrian Leddy was responding to a new atlas of Irish agriculture published yesterday which shows an ever-increasing gap between different regions, with one third of farms, most of which are in the east and south, accounting for almost three-quarters of production.
"There is no point in the IFA saying that there is going to be a living to be made in small acreage farming anymore," Mr Leddy said.
"The only way that makes economic sense is to get more industry into the west and then people can go down the road of part-time farming, where they will be living in their own environment, keeping rural schools open and maintaining the fabric of society." This was why the IFA supported the campaign for the three poorer regions of the State - the west, Border and midlands - to retain their Objective 1 status for European funding. It was now up to the Government to ensure that adequate funding and industry came into those 13 counties, Mr Leddy said.
There is also concern in the west and north-west that the future of a number of co-ops, which are large employers in rural areas, could be threatened if milk quotas are allowed to be transferred to other parts of the State. Mr Leddy said it was vital for the future of the co-ops that, as a milk quota became available in the poorer areas, it was transferred to other dairy farmers in that region.
He said not enough was being done to turn around the situation in disadvantaged regions, which saw an increasing amount of land covered in forestry.
The authors of the atlas predicted that policies agreed under Agenda 2000 would only accentuate the regional disparities in farming.