There’s always a resistance to change in rural Ireland, it’s one of the hallmarks of rural societies in general, Sinn Féin’s Martin Kenny says when he’s asked why Sinn Féin isn’t gaining more support among farmers.

“Change became the byword for a long time, certainly after this Government was formed, and for a number of years Sinn Féin was at the cutting edge of that.

“That’s always going to be a little bit slower to take grip in rural Ireland and among farming communities. And we in Sinn Féin are conscious of that and aware of that.

“What do we need to give people? I think, a vision of a different Ireland for rural people. I feel that’s something we can deliver on,” he tells the Irish Farmers Journal.

And right at the heart of that, Kenny says, is the viability of the family farm.

“Rural Ireland is more than agriculture, but agriculture is vital to rural Ireland,” he says.

He notes that the marketing of Irish farmers’ produce is based on an image we have of rolling green hills, the beautiful Irish rural landscape, with the “romantic vision” of the small family farm with free-roaming grass-fed cattle.

“Because of the price structures and the structure of supports, and the problems with existing supports, a lot of that is under threat.

“More and more farmers are moving toward a model which is not the family farm model, but actually more a corporate farm model. And I think that’s going to undermine the possibility for Ireland to be able to market its produce to the highest level.

“We need to recognise that we come with a very, very high-quality product, let that be in our dairy sector, which is tremendously successful, or in our beef sector, or sheepmeat, or whatever, that we are able to market that produce to the top shelf, and we need to be able to do that, but we need to be able to do that in a way that is authentic,” he says.

A Sinn Féin proposal, that one could argue that the Government has taken on board, is for a commission on the future of the family farm.

“We recognise that it’s about planning something which isn’t going to be for the next two months or six months, but for the next 10 years. It’s about how we can get to a position where we can make the family farm viable long term, that young people will want to remain farming or go into farming, that that option is there for them, and that they feel supported and secure in that.

“They need to see that there’s a plan, that there’s a national plan around it, and I think we don’t have that at present.”

What does a sustainable Irish farm look like, the Irish Farmers Journal asks?

Kenny says that Ireland can look at models of success, and we can examine those.

“We can also, I think, certainly say what a sustainable farm clearly isn’t. We have intensive farming happening in some parts of the country, and really the future is going to be, I think, in a less intensive and higher biodiversity farm model.

“Certainly, everything in Europe is pushing us in that direction. But farmers have to get a premium price for the produce that comes from that type of farm, and they also have to feel supported long-term.

“That’s about the schemes we put in place, but also about how we market the produce and how we can be authentic on that market and that produce, whether that be from, you know, the grain sector, or any of those sectors, they’re all under [the] same similar pressures.”

The sense is that you have to get bigger and more intensive to survive, Kenny says.

There needs to be a balance in the middle. And I think a balance can be found, but it will require a plan

“And if that’s what the industry is pressuring us into, we have an opposite pressure coming from the other direction, from society and from Government and from the European Union, in particular.

“There needs to be a balance in the middle. And I think a balance can be found, but it will require a plan, and we don’t yet have that plan in place.”

“I want us to retain the derogation for as long as possible, and will fight for that, but we have to bite the bullet regarding our stocking levels, especially on grazing blocks.

“It’s an unavoidable issue that we may have to reduce the intensity.

“As I said earlier, the direction of travel is lower intensity and higher biodiversity.

“The water quality issue is related to that, because it’s related to the amount of fertiliser and slurry we spread.

“So we have to, in some sense, grasp that nettle. But I think we need time and we need to invest in putting measures in place over a number of years in a planned way,” Kenny said.

“I think the priority for the next CAP has to be a recognition of that model of farming that we have in Ireland. In my part of the world in the northwest, there are a lot of farmers, dispersed in small holdings of land, suckler farming is the only option they have, by and large.

Sucklers

“And we’d certainly be looking forward in our budget to be introducing the €300/cow scheme for the suckler farmer to make sure that they will be credible and be sustainable long term.

Sheep

“Similarly, in the sheep sector, we’ll be looking forward to getting a €30 per year for the breeding ewe.

“Drystock farmers, in general, are the ones on the lower income, and they’re the people who need [support] most.”

“ACRES has been a disaster, with delays, interim payments, the threat of payments being taken back.

“On the residential zoned land tax, Pearse [Doherty] made it clear from the very outset that he’d like to put an amendment forward to ensure that active farmland would not be included in it. The Government won’t listen, won’t accept, that sometimes the opposition has a point.”