To indicate her family's commitment to preserving and enriching their part of the landscape, Ms Teresa Munnelly held her hands up in the air. Working their landscape did not cost much but it was hard physical work, "especially on the fingernails", she said.
With her husband Francis, they built a new entrance to their farmyard in Breaffy, near Ballina, Co Mayo, landscaped the surrounding area with native species of holly and horse chestnut (seeded by themselves), and opened up and cleaned a section of the Breaffy river running by their holding.
Their efforts were rewarded yesterday with £12,000, the main prize in the ESB/IFA Millennium Farm Landscape Initiative Awards. The £50,000 awards initiative was the IFA's contribution to the millennium. Some 1,500 farmers and rural dwellers participated, involving an estimated investment of £5 million.
The winning entries suggested the "bungalow bliss" era with associated blight of rural landscapes may soon give way to a less obtrusive style with emphasis on local cut stone. Old barns, old walls, belltowers, even small castles benefited as they underwent facelifts, and if in some cases it did not amount to restoration, the work was largely appropriate.
Not only was there much co-operation between husbands and wives, farmers joined forces too; notably the winning Munster combination of the Blake, Newman and Rayel families from Castlecove, Co Kerry.
A plan to widen part of the Ring of Kerry by the county council galvanised them into action. They secured a mile-long cycle lane from their village to Whitestrand, and the building of a wall with local stone along the three properties which has the look of a good Kerry wall from the early 1800s. Behind it, they planted native rowan, alder, gorse and fuchsia.
"It shows how people living in adjoining properties can work to gether," explained Ms Claire Blake. "It's no use doing good work and having an eyesore next door."
The IFA director of organisation, Mr Pat Smith, said the entries showed how acutely aware farmers were of their role as custodians of the rural environment, their ability to use good farming practice to make a living and yet sustain that environment.
The Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey, who presented the awards in Dublin Castle, acknowledged the commitment to maintaining their landscape reflected in achievement of a 25 per cent recycling rate of farm plastic in 1999, and the setting of a 40 per cent target when much lower rates were being achieved elsewhere.
However, he cited indicators of pollution in the rural environment with 33 per cent of rivers affected by slight, moderate or serious pollution. "Agriculture is by far the major source of phosphorus inputs affecting inland waters and is the principal source of nitrogen polluting both surface waters and groundwaters," he added.
The IFA president, Mr Tom Parlon, highlighted the success of the Rural Environment Protection Scheme. He said farmers with industry had worked to remove 6,000 tonnes of waste farm plastic from the rural environment.
