The newly appointed director of Teagasc, Dr Gerry Boyle, has criticised his own organisation, the institutes of technology and the universities for failing to respond to the entrepreneurial needs of farmers.
In his first major statement since he took over the job in the agriculture and food development authority three weeks ago, Dr Boyle told the Macra na Feirme annual conference in Clonmel that there was a major challenge facing educational institutions to prepare them for the future.
"I don't think to be perfectly honest that neither we in Teagasc, or the other institutions out there, the institutes of technology or the universities, have responded adequately to the requirements of that entrepreneurial spirit that will be needed in the future," he said.
While more people from farming backgrounds were entering third-level education, the numbers studying agriculture continued to fall. Most of these young people did not go into agriculture and that was a waste, Dr Boyle said. The way that the curriculums were organised was part of the problem and programmes were needed to attract "farmerpreneurs".
"Perhaps we are not offering programmes in the education system which are not attractive to future farmerpreneurs. I think we need more flexibility.
"If someone wants to go to college and study science, why can't they take a couple of modules in their second, third or fourth years in an agricultural college, for example? It might just be the spark that would ignite their interest in coming back to their home farm."
Dr Boyle said he was committed to developing educational programmes at third level that would respond to the needs of farmers. He wanted students exposed to the research taking place in Teagasc institutions like Moorepark, Fermoy.
"We want to provide a course for students at agricultural colleges and universities where students can take placements in Ireland and abroad and at the end of that qualification, students would be enabled to go on and if they so wished, take up positions outside agriculture, but they will also, if they so wish, bring back those skills they have acquired into their own farm business and thereby generate and income themselves for farming activity."
He said there was a future in farming, but it would be different, with much more part-time farming, but there would be a great need for "farmerpreneurs", who would be flexible, well-educated, risk takers.
Results of a survey released by Macra na Feirme at the conference showed young farmers were confident about the viability of farming, with 92 per cent of young dairy farmers being "positive" (48 per cent) or "very positive" (44 per cent).
Sixty per cent of beef farmers said they were positive about the outlook, but one-third expressed negative views, including 7 per cent who believed the future was "very negative".
All the young tillage farmers surveyed were confident about the future and one-third said they either grew energy crops or would think about growing these crops in the next 12 months.