Kilkenny man John Bryan (51) has officially taken over as the 13th president of the Irish Farmers Association (IFA).
Mr Bryan took over from outgoing president Padraig Walshe at the organisation's AGM in Dublin today.
In his presidential address, Mr Bryan, a beef farmer from Inistioge, Co Kilkenny, said while this had been a horrendous year for farming, he was optimistic increasing world population and demand for food would bring better times.
His priorities, he said, were to reverse the drop in farm incomes and get a product price rise across all sectors, reduce bureaucracy and farm costs, ensure the new Rural Environment Protection scheme payments were adequate and the protection of the Single Farm Payment (SFP).
He called on the Government to back agriculture in the future as it can and will contribute to Ireland’s economic recovery.
A former garda, Mr Bryan defeated his two rivals for the post, Derek Deane and Richard Kennedy, in one of the highest turn outs in an IFA election last month.
Elected as deputy to Mr Bryan for the next four years was Eddie Downey from Slane, Co Meath, chairman of Meath IFA and former farm business chairman, who defeated Sean O’ Leary of Cork, who was the outgoing Munster vice president of IFA.
