Getting hands on land is the biggest challenge for young farmers

Non-farmer Kieran O’Dowd will be the next president of young farmers’group Macra na Feirme. Surely some mistake? Isn’t that like electing a meat-eater to lead the Vegetarian Society?

Not surprisingly, O’Dowd, a barrister, disagrees. And clearly he’s not alone as the 35-year-old from Gurteen, Co Sligo, will be the third non-farmer to be elected president of the organisation.

“I would describe Macra na Feirme as a young farmers’organisation and a rural young people’s organisation,” he says. “I think there’s a balance between both. It doesn’t have to be either, or. We’ve got a nice mix of young farmers and professionals.”

He says Macra is moving with the times. “Back in 1944 when we were established, the primary aims behind it were educating young farmers and encouraging them to develop new practices in animal husbandry and so on.

“As time has gone by, we have evolved. It is the only representative body for young farmers in the country between 17 and 35 years old and it will continue to be so, under my presidency.”

Macra na Feirme’s membership has indeed changed greatly since it was founded by a group of 12 agricultural advisers, rural science teachers and farmers nearly 70 years ago. Back then there was little to offer young farmers who wanted to learn the best farming practices and meet like-minded people.

The organisation moved quickly and has an impressive legacy as a result. It founded bodies such as The Irish Farmers Journal, the National Farmers’Association (now IFA), the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’Association and Macra na Tuaithe (now Foróige).

Many former IFA presidents have been members of the organisation and it is often described as the nursery for IFA members.

Today about one-third of Macra’s 8,000-plus members are involved in farming and women account for 40 per cent of the membership.

Cork woman Aisling Lewis became the third woman to run for the presidency when she lost out to O'Dowd in this election. Macra members elected its first, and only, female president in 2007 when Catherine Buckley won the race.

Negotiations
O'Dowd will have to hit the ground running when he takes office at Macra's AGM in Cork on May 11th.

Young farmers recently got a shock when negotiations on the Common Agricultural Policy reforms did not go their way. In agreeing their stance for the negotiations, the Council of Agricultural Ministers decided that a top-up payment for young farmers should be voluntary, rather than mandatory.

The negotiations are continuing between the council, the European Parliament and the European Commission. It is thought that Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney will introduce the top-up but young farmers would prefer if the measure was mandatory.

O’Dowd will also be seeking the reintroduction of the installation aid policy, which was valuable in helping young farmers get established in the past.

But for many young farmers, the elephant in the room is the difficulty in getting their hands on land.

Earlier this year, Macra published a study which highlighted the rising age profile of farmers and found that that 48 per cent of farmers aged over 50 had not identified a farming successor.

“If you had any other profession in the world where you have more people in it over the age of 80 than under the age of 35 it would certainly sound alarm bells,” O’Dowd says.

“The agricultural colleges are full and people are returning to the farm but the difficulty is that in order to earn a livelihood from it, you need to be able to access land.“

It is estimated that land changes hands once every 400 years in Ireland, compared with once every 70 years in France. He says the Government’s ambitious plans to expand food production will not be met if it doesn’t ease the path for young farmers.

“The young farmers are the ones that are going to drive our economy forward. They are the ones taking out loans and taking the risks to try new initiatives.

“As you get older and closer to retirement age, you understandably tend to be more conservative.”

Social outlet
Concerns over suicide and depression among young people in rural areas have also been highlighted by Macra in recent years and he says it will be a priority under his presidency.

“I want to encourage members to get involved in training in this area. And just by getting more people involved in our activities, they are meeting new people, having social interaction, developing interpersonal skills and that’s preventing isolation.”

For most members, Macra’s biggest selling point is the social outlet it offers. Eyes meet regularly across crowded rooms at Macra drama and quiz nights and many marriages have been made. In fact, O’Dowd met his wife Caroline, a primary school teacher, at a Macra dinner dance in Ballymote, Co Sligo.

He joined the organisation after he finished college and returned home to the village of Gurteen to find that most of his friends were gone. He says his involvement gave him the confidence to become a barrister.

“The debating, the public speaking, all that was very good because it gave me the confidence to talk in front of a crowd. I found it very worthwhile.”

He was called to the Bar in 2008 and has been practising on the midlands circuit. Now he will put that career on hold for the two-year term of the presidency.

“It probably is a big thing to give that up for two years,” he says. “But I’ve got the rest of my life to work on my legal career. The chance to run for the Macra presidency comes around once in a blue moon.”