If this is your first time to hear of Ag Economics, we’re not surprised – the subject has a staggeringly low profile. Although the Department of Education says that 14 schools offered it as a subject for Leaving Certificate 2013, 23 of the 46 students came from one school alone – Hewitt College, a grinds school in Cork city.

Patricia McGrath, Hewitt College’s principal, has been promoting agricultural education at second-level for years.

“I’m from a farming background myself. I started pushing Ag Science in 2000. There were only 900 students sitting it across the country at that time – that’s risen to over 7,000 now. We’re the biggest Ag Science centre in the country. There are now 300 students studying the subject between fifth and sixth year.”

Patricia refutes the theory that students are taking Ag Science because it’s easy to get high marks in.

“If you’re a strong science student, you’re lacking on the practical side, and if you’re from a farming background, you’ll still be challenged by the science side.”

Agricultural Economics is Patricia’s latest cause. She says Hewitt College is the only mainstream school teaching the subject. And numbers are set to expand. She expects there will be 90 students sitting Ag Economics in Hewitt College next year.

But why is Patricia so enthusiastic about this subject? Apparently, it’s a great option for students targeting high points.

“Students might take a pass language or pass maths and do Agricultural Economics as one of the six subjects they’re counting for points,” says Patricia.

“Honours maths is five hours of class a week, while agricultural economics is only 2.5 hours a week.”

On top of that, Patricia describes it as a “super subject”.

“It couldn’t be more relevant. A lot of students will say they love it, and that their Dad loves it.”

Just one-third of the students who sat the exam in Hewitt this year were from a farming background. It seems Patricia is on to a good thing. She says students’ marks in Ag Economics matched or exceeded their best results.

“If they were A students, they’d have an A in Ag Economics too, and if they had a mix of grades, Ag Economics would be their highest.”

John Sugrue, the Ag Economics teacher in Hewitt College, can take credit for this. He started teaching the subject last year. Before that, his focus had been on accounting and economics.

“I wasn’t particularly aware of the subject before last year. It was a bit scary, but the course was so accessible that I felt confident delivering it.”

In just one year he has set up satellite centres for teaching the subject in Bandon, Clonmel and Fermoy.

“You’re always a little nervous when you’re teaching a subject for the first time, until you see a good set of results. Now that I have those, I’m really throwing myself into it this year.”

John says there was as many as 350 to 400 students studying Agricultural Economics 15 years ago, but now there’s only three or four Agricultural Economics teachers in the country.

He says the course is very doable in one year.

“My fifth year students in Hewitt will do the same thing two years in a row but will get the project out of the way in fifth year. Sixth year is just revision for them. A and B grades are very accessible. A student who puts in the effort to study hard and learn the material will not be caught out on the day. There’s no twists in it.

“And there’s not too much of anything in it. I never have to deal with students who are fed up with one part of it.”

Furthermore, he says Agricultural Economics is easier than Economics. “Agricultural Economics is much more accessible and enjoyable than Economics. Economics is much broader. The project is worth 20%, but it’s not as big as the Agricultural Science project.

“It’s a very relevant subject. They start applying what they’re learning to the news going on in the world around them.”

The course itself is designed to give students an understanding of the significant contribution the agricultural sector makes to the economy.

The syllabus is quite old, but John notes that agricultural policy and CAP is just as relevant today as it was 20 or 30 years ago. There’s no textbook, although John notes there was one written a long time ago by Seamus Sheehy and Robert O’Connor called Economics of Irish Agriculture. However, it’s very hard to get.

John has his own set of notes and workbook, and says the past papers are a huge guidance. However, he says that one essential text is the Irish Farmers Journal because so much of the topic is based on current issues.

“I bring the Farmers Journal into class every week and we look over the main topics.”

Structure

The subject involves a project worth 20% of the overall marks. This asks students to discuss a topic on the course they like or find interesting. Although students can’t study both Economics and Ag Economics for the Leaving Cert, they can combine AgScience and Ag Economics, as well as Accounting and Ag Economics and Business and Ag Economics.

Student Profile

Cliona Sheehy from New Inn, Co Tipperary, studied Agricultural Economics for the Leaving Cert in Hewitt College. She also studied Ag Science and got an A1 in both subjects. In fact, Cliona took a staggering four sciences in the Leaving – Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Ag Science. Having received 555 points in August, she’s off to RCSI to study pharmacy.

She doesn’t feel that her A1s in both subjects are because of these subjects being easier than others. Instead, she says that because she liked them so much, they were easier to study.

“Ag Economics is hard to get an A1 in. You need a general knowledge of what’s going on. It was very challenging, but I liked it.”

However, she does say that the course isn’t as broad as other subjects in terms of content (“it’s a short enough course”) and that there’s more content in Ag Science.

“Ag Science is more science-based rather than focusing on the affairs of the country, so they didn’t cross over at all. I felt Agricultural Economics was more relevant to the real world. I was doing stuff I really wanted to know myself – I was genuinely interested, rather than just learning.”

When she has completed her pharmacy degree, Cliona plans to work in nutritional or medical products for animals. She considered doing veterinary but was much more interested in the research side of veterinary than the on-the-ground element.

Cliona was in the Ursuline Convent in Thurles from first until fifth year, before moving to Hewitt. She loved the Ursuline but moved because she could do everything under one roof in Hewitt, and it had her subjects of choice – Ag Science and Ag Economics. Before her move, she’d been doing Ag Science outside of school – something which involved lots of “running and racing”.

Her Agricultural Economics project focused on a comparison of the Irish and US dairy industries. She did a lot of research, speaking to Alan Fahey in UCD and to Land O’Lakes co-op in Minnesota in the United States.

“The project was a bit out there, not many people would have done what I did. I researched the history of both dairy industries and I took into account predictions about what would happen when quotas go. I didn’t realise how much work I was taking on when I decided to do it.”

In her conclusions, she found that 85% of Irish dairy farms and beef production is exported and 11% of US dairy and beef production is exported.

“The US system offers an insight as to the direction the Irish dairy industry may go,” she concludes.

There is no doubt that growing up in a house where her dad regularly takes phone calls from the US in his role as director of ruminants with Devenish Nutrition was inspiration for Cliona’s project.

Although Cliona doesn’t live on a farm, both of her parents are from farms and two of her uncles are farmers.

“The Irish Farmers Journal is piled up to the roof. We’ve collected them over the years and used them for pictures for Leaving Cert Ag Science and Ag Economics projects.”