Sir, - The recent farm incomes survey quoted in your edition of October 4th revealed nothing new. It showed that while the average farm income rose by 27 per cent to £11,500 (1995 levels), it is still way below the average industrial wage.
The survey goes on to break down by enterprise category and by number the different amounts earned by farmers, ranging from a top level of £23,000 for tillage farmers down to £5,000 for 50,000 farmers who are dependent on other sources of income, including social welfare.
These figures and others in the survey demonstrate the contradictory nature of present and past agricultural policy. On the one hand this promotes the rationalisation of agricultural production along economic lines, while on the other it seeks means of promoting the same enterprises on small holdings.
While this barren policy continues, more farmers' incomes will drop below the average industrial wage.
Unfortunately, official policy has largely failed to recognise this trend. If it did, agricultural colleges, many of which are now facing closure, would equip young farmers to manage the changes causing the decline of full-time farming. Teagasc would re-focus its strategy, by setting up two separate divisions, one for the commercial farmer, and one specialising in methods of part-time and alternative farm production.
Otherwise, the trend towards greater poverty caused by badly designed farming practices will continue, and young people will continue the march out of farming, and out of rural areas for good. - Yours, etc.,
Seamus Boland, National Co-Ordinator, Irish Rural Link, Galway.