The traditional model of the Irish family farm will be inadequate to meet the challenges facing Irish agriculture in the future, a conference opened by the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, at the weekend was told.
The president of the Agricultural Consultants' Association of Ireland, Mr Eddie McQuinn, told the gathering at Leopardstown, Dublin, on Saturday that new models of operation would have to be found for the future.
One of those models, share farming co-operatives, was put forward by Mr Martin O'Sullivan, chairman of the ACA's farm business and taxation committee.
The blueprint envisaged a number of farmers pooling resources such as land, buildings, livestock, quotas, machinery and labour.
This co-op, said Mr O'Sullivan, would operate around a central hub farm sufficiently large to provide grazing for the production of at least 200,000 gallons of milk.
Each participant's labour input, if any, would be determined at the time of entry and would be based on a five-year renewable agreement.
He said profit shares would be determined by agreement of the members and would be related to land, facilities and labour provided.
Mr O'Sullivan said the economy of scale would bring about cost savings, and greater efficiency would result from the arrangement, which would also provide a soft landing for older farmers.
He said the co-op would offer the prospect of regular time off, the availability of dependable, affordable labour, opportunities for off-farm employment, and would even open up possibilities for landless farmers.
Mr McQuinn said the conference was being held against the background of a survey his organisation had conducted which showed that 40 per cent of dairy farmers had no identified successor.
This figure was higher on livestock farms, where 70 per cent of dry-stock farmers had no identified successor and less than 20 per cent of all farm units were viable.
He said the figures showed the average income on dry-stock farms was one-third the average industry wage, and that even a milk quota holder of 43,000 gallons was earning a profit of €20,000 per annum, less than 75 per cent of the average industrial wage.
Opening the conference, Mr Ahern said that based on the ACA's findings and other surveys, it was becoming clear that radical policy changes were urgently required if the industry was to survive and compete.
"I am conscious that these are not the easiest times for farmers and farming. They had an extremely difficult year in 2002 with miserable weather, lower output and relatively poor prices," he said.
However, he said, Ireland's agriculture had many advantages, including the presence of more young farmers than in the rest of Europe.
There would be opportunities and difficulties arising from the reform of the CAP but he was confident that if Ireland focused on the areas it needed to protect, we could do as well out of the changes as in the past.
Pointing out that all industries were in a period of change, Mr Ahern said the quality of Irish farmers, Irish farming and its produce was second to none and that we should keep building on that. "If you don't build on the quality options, there is no option but to give up and I do not agree with that as a policy option," he said.
He said he expected the current levels of support for farmers to continue for another 10 years but he was concerned that the issues which would arise after that were not being sufficiently addressed.