HARVESTING:A WARNING that cereal planting could drop by up to 60,000 hectares in the coming season was issued yesterday at the championships.
The president of the Irish Farmers' Association, Padraig Walshe, said farmers had experienced a very difficult harvest due to wet weather, high moisture and poor trafficability.
"These problems have been exacerbated by persistent attempts by the major buyers to drive down the price offered to growers, who have indicated that 20 per cent of the land sown this year could be dropped from arable production."
Mr Walshe said the failure of the big millers to quote was already undermining sowing intentions for the 2009 harvest.
Meanwhile, Sinn Féin yesterday published the initial results of a survey it carried out at marts in Cork and Kerry on the future of the sector.
Sinn Féin agriculture spokesman Martin Ferris said initial findings showed a majority felt their situation had either got worse or had not changed with decoupling.
"The level of pessimism was fairly even across the different types of farmers interviewed," he said. The most pessimistic were those involved in beef farming, of whom 78 per cent felt their situations had worsened and only 11 per cent felt it had improved.
Also at the championships yesterday, the Minister for Labour Affairs, Billy Kelleher, announced two initiatives aimed at reducing accidents on farms.
He said the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) would recommence its safety-training programme this autumn and a major schools competition would be held in 142 primary schools.
The programme for training farmers in the Farm Safety Code of Practice is to be delivered by Teagasc in its centres around the country and is supported by the HSA.
Martin O'Halloran, HSA chief executive, said a study of the situation in Denmark showed that participation in short training courses had led to a 48 per cent drop in accidents on farms.
The competition aimed at primary school children from Kilkenny, Carlow and Tipperary will involve them providing wording for a farm-safety poster. These counties have been identified as black spots for farm accidents.