Data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) released through a parliamentary question in the Dáil this week showed that 51% of farm families Ireland get their income solely from the farming enterprise.

According to the CSO, of the 139,100 farms in Ireland, 51% or 70,300 farms count farming as their sole occupation.

On the remaining farms, 25% or 35,200 holdings, the farm income was a “major occupation”. The CSO class a major occupation as being “if farm work took up the greater part of a worker’s time, it was regarded as a major occupation.”

ADVERTISEMENT

The remaining 33,500 or 24% of holdings, the income from these farms is described as being “subsidiary”. A subsidiary income, according to the CSO, is defined as being “if the time spent on gainful non-farming activity exceeded that spent on farm work then farm work was regarded as a subsidiary occupation.”

This is essentially a farmer generating a greater income from an off-farm income.

The parliamentary question was asked by Kildare TD Bernard Durkan to Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney this week.

Read more

If you are interested in a career in the agri-industry, come along to the Irish Farmers Journal and Open Eir Agri Careers Fair, which takes place in the RDS on 3 March 2015. For more information, click here .