In a moving speech, President Michael D Higgins emphasised the importance of agriculture in Ireland, and of thriving family farms.

Higgins extended his sympathies to the tillage farmers that are out “seeking to salvage what they can from the harvest”, which was met by applause by the crowd at the bandstand.

Listen to President Higgins as he visited the sheep searing tent with champion shearer IvanScott in our podcast below.

“There can be no vibrant society without vibrant rural communities. And there can be no vibrant rural communities without thriving family farms,” the President said. “We must as a society, ensure that our farming men and women are enabled to continue to carry out what is one of the most ancient, one of the most important and beautiful human activities on earth; the tending of the land and the cultivation of its fruits from which all our food is drawn.”

Those sometimes conflicting demands of productivity and profitability on the one hand and environmental imperatives on the other, are a daily reality for man

Higgins outlined key challenges in agriculture that he said must be addressed by policy at a national and European level. While family farms must be sustained for years to come he said we have arrived at a “critical juncture” where this is far from guaranteed.

“The challenges facing farmers are many,” he said. “The difficulty of accessing credit and land for younger farmers, fierce international competition, price volatility, as well as those sometimes conflicting demands of productivity and profitability on the one hand and environmental imperatives on the other, are a daily reality for many.”

Rural-urban divide

He urged the Irish people to be serious about objectives of social cohesion and not allow the rural-urban divide to grow.

“While ‘brain drain’, the loss to the city of young educated people, has been and remains a concern for rural communities, there are, today, many talented young people who chose to settle, or return to live in rural areas,” said Higgins, who went on to emphasise the importance of sustainability. “My deep conviction that the only road to the future is sustainability – both social and environmental. Ensuring food security for all, building a prospering and labour intensive agricultural sector, while preventing further climate change and protecting our natural advantages for future generations.”

Macra na Feirme was given a special mention, thanked for putting forth “some interesting ideas to facilitate new forms of collaborative farming and thus allow access to the land for a new generation of farmers”.

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