Young people from Eastern Europe are filling farm apprenticeship vacancies on farms here as young Irish people continue to turn their backs on the land as a career.
Already, eight of 160 farm apprenticeship places have been taken by five Bulgarians and three Ukranians, according to Mr Oliver Tierney of the Farm Apprenticeship Board.
He said the number of young Irish people seeking apprenticeships had fallen by 50 per cent over the past four years and that many master farmers now had no apprentices.
Mr Tierney said the desire of young foreigners to learn about Irish farming and the shortage of apprentices here meant the needs of the farmers and the students were now being met.
"These young people approached us looking for training. They are university students and we had the places for them. It is working both ways," he said.
Mr Tierney said the Farm Apprenticeship Board was looking at ways of making farming as a career more attractive to young people.
"We are looking at ways of sharing between the farmer and the apprentice and systems like work partnerships to make it attractive for young people to look at farming as a career," he said.
The pig industry had experienced most difficulty in attracting young people, although the money being paid was comparable to that in other industries.
"I understand that some pig farmers in Ireland have brought in labour from Bosnia," he said.
He said wages were not the major problem for young people, who could earn between £20,000 and £25,000 as soon as they were qualified.
The master farmers' conference, held yesterday in the Tullamore Court Hotel, Co Offaly, was told by the Minister for Agriculture and Food, Mr Walsh, that there was room for improvement in the State's approach to agriculture.
He said it was by no means certain that the State was providing the right services in the right way and a change of approach could facilitate improvements in agricultural structures and productivity.
He told journalists that the best way of ensuring young people stayed on the land was to make sure they had a decent living there, which was why the coming World Trade Organisation talks were so important.
He said it was imperative that Ireland defend the direct payment system to farms, which was currently running at 57 per cent and would rise by 2007 to 75 per cent of farm income.
This area and the need to protect EU export refunds were crucial to Ireland as an exporting state and the preservation of the European model of farming in Ireland. A common approach had been worked out by the EU to the negotiations which, he predicted, would be very tough, especially on the two main areas he had mentioned.
He said that food safety and the disadvantages experienced by European farmers who did not use hormones to produce beef and milk would also be a critical area in the talks, which begin next month in Seattle.