Teagasc Conference Pinpoints Challenges for Agricultural Training

19 February, 2003

The number of school-leaving children coming off farms will drop by more than 50% over the next decade, according to a Teagasc education expert.

Paddy Browne, Head of Education with Teagasc, told the Teagasc National Education Conference in Dublin Castle that the total number of 18 year olds on Irish farms will decline from around 5,000 per year at present to 2,000 in ten years time.

"This is a result of lower birth rates in the early 1990's and will create serious challenges in securing the future generation of farmers," he said.

"The proportion of school-leavers from farms taking up careers in full-time farming will need to increase on its present level. Also, since half of the 2,000 eighteen year olds in 2012 will be women, the current low number of women entering farming will need to be changed if the ownership and management of many family farms is to be sustained".

"It may be necessary to recruit and train young people from non-farming backgrounds in order to ensure the efficient management of farms over the coming decades," he added.

The conference, which was sponsored by FBD Trust, was attended by 300 representatives from the agri-food and education sectors and examined the education challenges facing the agricultural industry over the coming decade.

Mr Browne also told the conference that the trend of young people undertaking agricultural training in UK colleges, which emerged during the 1990's, has now almost disappeared.

"In 1999, a total of 70 potential entrants to farming here enrolled in agricultural training courses in UK colleges. Last autumn, there were just six Irish enrolees in UK colleges. In contrast, the number of participants in Teagasc training courses in the current year is up by almost 10%, the first increase in almost a decade".

"The virtual disappearance of UK colleges as a training option for our young farmers and the increased participation in Teagasc courses is taking place at a time of radical change in agricultural training in Ireland".

"All Teagasc courses have been upgraded and nationally accredited. A total of 11 third level courses are available on the CAO list this year and participants in all nationally accredited Teagasc courses have the opportunity to progress right up to university degree level. It is heartening to see that this transformation is already having impact in increased participation in agricultural and horticultural training," said Paddy Browne.

Alan Dukes, Director General of the Irish Institute of European Affairs, told the conference that because of the changing structure of farming, information technology and time management will need to become important parts of agricultural training.

"Training must also give new insights into the issue of environmental protection which will figure more and more in how farmers run their businesses and live their lives."

"While farmers may understand more about our natural environment than many of those who claim special wisdom in laying down rules for conservation, they do not have the answers appropriate to an environment which has been irreversibly changed," he said.

Mr Dukes called on the EU to insist on common worldwide rules on health standards and traceability for food products in the WTO negotiations on world food trade.

"I can see no good reason why EU consumers, on whose behalf we have forbidden EU producers to use growth-promoting hormones, should sometimes find themselves unknowingly eating hormone-stuffed American beef," he said.

The full conference proceedings can be found in National Conference in Agricultural Education