Installation aid represents a more valuable lever for giving more young farmers a foothold on the land than payment top ups applied to area-based schemes, the IFA's president Francie Gorman has said.

The comment comes as the ongoing CAP reform could see a young farmer top up similar to that currently in place remaining after 2027 – or the re-introduction of lump sums to those starting out farming.

“We need to make sure that when money is directed towards young farmers that it gives real value for every euro that they get,” Gorman told the Agricultural Science Association conference on Thursday 3 September.

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“I personally think that putting a per hectare payment or handing somebody an entitlement – giving them €170/ha and sending them out into a land market to drive up the price of land – is not the best value for money for those farmers.

"I think you'd be far better off to say to them: 'we'll give you a lump sum, go home and invest it in your farm in whatever way you can'."

Innovation

Gorman said that lump sums that would allow younger farmers invest in technology and innovation pose particular opportunities for those looking to take over farms while keeping up an off-farm job.

“Nobody works harder than the part-time farmer, the fella that's in a job nine to five, and then he comes home, he's farming in the morning, he's farming in the evening, he's farming at the weekend when he's not working,” he said.

“We need to try and make that model of farming more attractive as well.

“When I look at the developments in the dairy sector in particular, and how robotic milking has taken off, you don't have to be at home on the farm full-time now to be able to run even a very commercial dairy farm.”

Gorman said the sector could not shy away from future innovations and added that the EU should take another look at its opposition to tools like genetically modified crops.

Productivity focus

The IFA leader also called for the farming sector to seek productivity from the young farmers starting out in their careers.

“You know, we need young farmers coming through to have to be productive as well,” he said.

“There's no point in bringing them home and giving them a payment and they're not productive on farms. They need to be productive because productive agriculture drives profitability.

“It drives the economy in rural areas and if we don't have that, everybody is going to lose out.”

Gorman gave his own view that he would “like to see productive land use to produce food” but referenced a decision of the IFA’s national council to not “dictate to individual farmers what they should do with their own land”.

Rural economy

“I think that gives the best value you can get into the rural economy, that could be milking cows, feeding cattle, growing grain, whatever,” he said.

“For me, I think we're expecting too much of the hectare. “We want it for entitlements. We want it for derogation. We want it for solar. We want it for forestry. We want to rewild. We want to save the planet.

“We can't do everything, and we do need probably to decide as a country what the priorities for our land should be.”