FARM INCOME will drop by 28 per cent this year, the Irish Farmers’ Association has claimed, with average income from full-time farming falling to €16,000.
The figures, compiled by the IFA’s economic unit, also show income from part-time farming this year will be only €13,000.
Announcing the figures yesterday, IFA president Pádraig Walshe said they were facing the worst farm income crisis in a generation. This “farm income” figure must provide for family living costs, pension payments and bank repayments, and included all direct payments received by farmers.
Average farm income was now one-quarter of the average salary in the public sector, which was on strike yesterday. Mr Walshe blamed Government cuts to farming schemes, “greedy” retailers and uncompetitive costs in the economy for contributing to the crisis.
With many farm families facing desperate financial problems, Mr Walshe accused the Government of being in denial over the dire income situation, with its severe cuts across vital farm schemes this year.
“It is long past time agriculture minister Brendan Smith stood up and was counted around the Cabinet table,” he said.
He strongly criticised some political and union leaders who, he said, were living in “cloud-cuckoo land”.
“They are misleading the public into believing that there is some crock of gold in the private sector that can be tapped to meet the shortfall in the public finances,” Mr Walshe added.
The IFA president said the facts were that most farmers and small businesses were hanging on by their fingernails, and the Government must come forward with immediate action to improve competitiveness by reducing costs in energy, labour, waste disposal and bureaucracy.
He was also highly critical of the State agencies, including the Competition Authority and the National Consumer Agency, which had been complicit in allowing the dominant retail multiples to “cannibalise” farm incomes “and undermine the livelihoods of farm families across the country”.
“Processors using the excuse of retailers and disastrous returns from the marketplace is simply not good enough. Dairy and meat processors must stand up for primary producers and stop giving away our produce to greedy retailers at discounted prices,” he said.
The analysis by the Irish Farmers’ Association showed that the main factors affecting farm incomes in 2009 had been the fall in product prices in almost all of the main farming systems, Government cuts in farm schemes and continuing high input costs.
The depreciation of sterling had also had a significant impact on producer prices and, while input prices had fallen from the record highs of 2008, the fall had not been sufficient to offset the reduction in output prices.
The IFA figures showed a 27 per cent drop in the value of milk and cereals output this year, a 10 per cent drop in cattle prices and an 8 per cent decrease in pig prices in 2009.