Madam, - Your Editorial of December 1st notes that in the past year there has been a "20 per cent growth in beef sales to EU countries" and that the "majority of an estimated 240,000 farmers are now part-time". Neither of these figures bear close scrutiny.
The 20 per cent growth in beef exports you refer to is, I suspect, based on Bord Bia's forecast of growth in beef exports to continental EU markets between 2005 and 2006.
Given that, on the basis of Bord Bia data, 93 per cent of Irish beef exports in 2006 were already going to EU export markets, a 20 per cent increase in these exports over the past year could only occur with an enormous increase in Irish beef production or in Irish beef imports. Neither has happened.
While the majority of farms are now part-time, as has been established by the Teagasc National Farm Survey, the population of farmers in Ireland is dramatically lower than 240,000. The CSO in its 2005 Farm Structure Survey estimates that the total number of family and non-family workers engaged in agriculture in 2005 was 247,700.
Farm holders - what most would call farmers - comprised 130,400 of this total, with the remainder accounted for by other family members (103,200) and regular non-family workers (14,000).
When the number of workers in agriculture is adjusted to reflect their actual labour input (thus accounting for part-time farms) and expressed in terms of what are called annual work units (AWU), the CSO estimates that 142,000 AWUs were employed in Irish agriculture in 2005, with farmers accounting for just over 98,000.
Sensible discussion of the impact of market events, policy changes and developments in the wider Irish economy on Irish agriculture and Irish farmers requires clarity on what is being discussed. - Yours, etc,
Dr KEVIN HANRAHAN, Rural Economy Research Centre, Teagasc, Athenry, Co Galway.