The dependence on farming as a source of employment declined from 14 per cent in 1991 to only 5 per cent in 2002, a conference on rural development heard yesterday.
Ms Caroline Crowley, a research scientist working with Teagasc, told the agriculture and food development authority's conference in Tullamore, Co Offaly, that this fall had taken place in a period of unprecedented growth in Ireland.
Outlining the major changes in the structure of farming, Ms Crowley, who is based in NUI Maynooth, said there was a growth of almost 60 per cent in the number of people at work in the Irish economy during the 1990s.
"But at the same time in farming, which was experiencing major reforms of the Common Agricultural Policy, the number of people employed there fell by 40 per cent," she said.
"Between 1990 and 2002, income from agriculture grew by 25 per cent compared with a 200 per cent increase in non-agricultural wages, salaries and pensions."
Ms Crowley said this gave an indication of the changes taking place in agriculture.
A decline of 17 per cent in the number of farms was accompanied by an increase of over 20 per cent in the average farm size, she said.
The average farm size now was almost 32 hectares (80 acres).
"The number of farms with less than 20 hectares fell by 46 per cent, while those with more than 50 hectares rose by 23 per cent," she told the 300 delegates at the conference in the Tullamore Court Hotel.
She said the largest farms were in the south and east, and Waterford, with an average of 45 hectares, had the largest farms in the State. Mayo and Monaghan had the smallest farms, averaging less than 22 hectares.
Farming remained the mainstay of the rural economy, Ms Crowley continued. But even within farming, the number of farmers relying on farming as a sole source of income had fallen from 74 per cent in the early 1990s to 56 per cent in the early 2000s.
The growth in part-time farming was clearly seen in parts of Meath and Kildare, where there was a decline of almost 50 per cent in the number of sole-occupation farmers in some areas, reflecting the labour market conditions in Dublin.
A study of rural Galway by Mr Jim Frawley, of the Teagasc Rural Economy Research Centre, showed the population in areas near urban centres increased by up to 50 per cent, while the population declined in more remote rural areas.
The study showed that non-farmers were now the dominant household types in rural areas close to urban centres.
Mr Frawley said it was clear that the principal dynamic for the development of rural areas depended on non-farm enterprises, but that should not detract from the major role of farming in sustaining rural development. He called for a wider approach to rural development than exists at present.