Towards Sustainable Rural Livelihoods Feb 1 st, Mullingar Towards Sustainable Rural Livelihoods National Rural Development Conference Cathal O’Donoghue, Rural Economy Research Centre Mullingar, February 1 st 2007.

Towards Sustainable Rural Livelihoods Feb 1 st, Mullingar Outline of Conference  Diversification On-Farm Putting Your Land to Work for You Food Enterprises Farm Enterprises  Changing World Off-farm Rural and Community Development Working and Living in Rural Ireland  Teagasc and Rural Development Community

Towards Sustainable Rural Livelihoods Feb 1 st, Mullingar Changing World – On-Farm

Towards Sustainable Rural Livelihoods Feb 1 st, Mullingar Farmers (Caroline Crowley, RERC; NUIM)  Growing importance of the non-farm economy to maintaining farm households  Between (Census of Agriculture) Active farms  17% (to 142,000) Sole occupation farmers  24% (79,000) Farmers with another job  37% ( 63,000)

Towards Sustainable Rural Livelihoods Feb 1 st, Mullingar Sole farmers versus farmers with other jobs (Caroline Crowley, RERC; NUIM) Derived from: Census of Agriculture 1991 and 2000

Towards Sustainable Rural Livelihoods Feb 1 st, Mullingar (Full-time) (Anne Kinsella, RERC) Income Growth: Farm vs Employee (Full-time) (Anne Kinsella, RERC) Source: RERC National Farm Survey, CSO

Towards Sustainable Rural Livelihoods Feb 1 st, Mullingar Farm Incomes (Poor) (Jason Loughrey, RERC)  Farming Households poorer than Employee Households 40%+ in bottom 40% of income distribution compared with <20% of employees in bottom 40% of income distribution (mainly those on benefits)  Proportion of Farmers and Employees in bottom 40% of household income Red  Poorest Farmers Employees

Towards Sustainable Rural Livelihoods Feb 1 st, Mullingar (Liam Connolly and Anne Kinsella, RERC) Importance of Subsidies (Liam Connolly and Anne Kinsella, RERC)  Farm Incomes Very Dependant on Subsidies (94%)  What happens post 2013?

Towards Sustainable Rural Livelihoods Feb 1 st, Mullingar Farming  Need for diversification and more value added products Farm Enterprise Food Enterprise  Recognise asset base Putting Your Land to Work for You  Value of Natural Asset Custodian of countryside

Towards Sustainable Rural Livelihoods Feb 1 st, Mullingar Changing World – Rural

Towards Sustainable Rural Livelihoods Feb 1 st, Mullingar Demography (David Meredith, RERC)  Ratio of Young to Old Darker more Young Concentrated in Urban and Peri-Urban Areas

Towards Sustainable Rural Livelihoods Feb 1 st, Mullingar Education (David Meredith, RERC)  Proportion of Graduates Follows a Similar Pattern Rural Brain Drain!

Towards Sustainable Rural Livelihoods Feb 1 st, Mullingar Employment (David Meredith, RERC)  % of Persons 15+ at Work Large Increase in Rural Employment More than offset decline in Agriculture  However Concentration in Construction and Retail Sustainability questioned due to reliance on subsidies and the exceptional construction boom

Towards Sustainable Rural Livelihoods Feb 1 st, Mullingar Source: CSO (Mark O’Brien and Thia Hennessy, RERC) Employment in Regions by Sector 2005 (Mark O’Brien and Thia Hennessy, RERC)

Towards Sustainable Rural Livelihoods Feb 1 st, Mullingar Commuting (David Meredith, RERC)  Employment Growth accompanied by rising commuting pattern

Towards Sustainable Rural Livelihoods Feb 1 st, Mullingar Access to Services (Karyn Morrissey, RERC)  Provision of Public Services in areas of low population density an issue  Implications of trends in public policy (e.g. increased centralisation)  Access to Hospital Services Location of Hospital Services

Towards Sustainable Rural Livelihoods Feb 1 st, Mullingar Changing World - Policy

Towards Sustainable Rural Livelihoods Feb 1 st, Mullingar Changing EU Policy Environment (Áine Macken-Walsh, RERC)  Trend in EU Policies ↓ Production and Price Supports Single Farm Payment ↑ Rural Development Policies LEADER (1991), Rural Dev. Regulation (1999)  CAP Pillar II ↑ Regional Development Structural Funds ↑ Rural Environment, Animal Welfare & Food Quality MacSharry, Agenda Future of Rural Society 1991 Rural Dev. LEADER 1992 MacSharry Reforms 1997 Agenda 2000 CAP Luxembourg Agreement 2013 ?

Towards Sustainable Rural Livelihoods Feb 1 st, Mullingar (Áine Macken-Walsh, RERC) Rural Communities (Áine Macken-Walsh, RERC)  What are the Sociological determinants in the Policy Shift towards Governance and Rural Development e.g. LEADER: What are the sociological factors at the local community level that influence the adoption/non-adoption of ‘alternative’ rural enterprises? Very different social groups in rural Ireland - differently positioned to engage with new rural development opportunities depending on: personal data (e.g. education, lifestyle, experience) and environmental data (e.g. location, orientation of assets, local agencies)

Towards Sustainable Rural Livelihoods Feb 1 st, Mullingar Rural Ireland  Balanced regional development!!  Provide employment with comparable incomes (equivalent to 120%+ of EU average)  Public Policy to Support life-style choices (for example decision to commute) e.g. Child Care Transport Long-Term Care for Elderly Health and Education Provision Infrastructure

Towards Sustainable Rural Livelihoods Feb 1 st, Mullingar Teagasc and Rur. Dev. Community  Significant Challenges to Rural Ireland  Teagasc  Rural Viability Objective  Our Programme needs to Reflect Realities  Teagasc Foresight exercise  Need to work together

Towards Sustainable Rural Livelihoods Feb 1 st, Mullingar Thank you! See our website: for documents relating to presentation