Non-Viable Farm Holdings
The Minister said farm viability cannot be defined or assessed reliably across all holdings, and that agricultural policies aim to improve farm structures. He could not estimate underproductive acreage, said officials would need about 12 months to compile such information, and noted there are about 223,500 holdings, many of them viable.
asked the Minister for Agriculture the number of non-viable farm holdings there are in the country; and the procedures he will adopt to make such farms viable.
Comment on this
A wide variety of factors affect the economic circumstances of any farm and it would not be practicable to attempt to assess the "viability" of all farms in the country even if an objective and satisfactory definition of this term could be agreed. However, all of the Governments' agricultural policies, and particularly those relating to farm structures, are aimed at facilitating and promoting the development of our farms. As I indicated in a reply to a parliamentary question on 7 May new measures to improve the efficiency of agricultural structures will be implemented later this year on foot of a new EC Directive.
Comment on this
Will the Minister indicate the total number of acres that have not come up to full production?
Comment on this
I cannot. That would be a considerable job. As regards viability, it comes back to the question I referred to some time ago. It is impossible to define it. A market gardner could be quite viable on one acre and a medium sized farm would not be viable on 40 or 50 acres. It is not something that can be clearly defined.
Comment on this
Considering that we recently had an extension of the severely handicapped areas, that we have the Agricultural Institute operating for a long number of years and that there is a large group of people working in the economic division of the Department of Agriculture, surely the man charged with the responsibility of leading the development of Irish agriculture has an idea at least within each province of the number of fallow acres throughout the land?
Comment on this
The officials of my Department would need about 12 months' notice of this question. One could hardly assimilate all that knowledge in a few days.
Comment on this
The best I can say is that there are about 223,500 agricultural holdings in the country. The fact that a great deal of these would be in disadvantaged areas does not mean that they are all unviable. A considerable number of them would be viable.