Agriculture and Rural Development Priority (Sub-Programme)

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6.1 Introduction

Primary agriculture accounted for 4.7% of Total National GDP in 1998 and the total agri-food sector (including agriculture, food, drinks and tobacco) accounted for 11.5% of GDP. Employment in agriculture accounts for 8.7% of total employment and the agri-food sector as a whole contributes 11.8% to employment. The agri-food sector accounted for 10.2% of Irish exports in 1998 and is estimated to be responsible for 27% of net foreign earnings from exports.

As it is an indigenous sector, agriculture has strong linkages within the economy, and has a geographic spread throughout the country. At the same time, as a rural industry, comprising mainly of family farms, it is the mainstay of many fragile rural communities in areas that have not fully shared in the recent economic success of Ireland. It has, therefore, a unique role in addressing the problem of social exclusion in rural areas.

Besides these economic and social dimensions, Ireland’s agriculture also plays a determining role in the creation and maintenance of the greater part of our physical environment. It is clear, therefore, that the agri-food sector remains central to the economic and social development of Ireland as it enters the new millennium.

The further development of the agricultural sector in Ireland, as in other Member States, is largely determined by the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and international agreements especially related to the World Trade Organisation. The outcome of the Agenda 2000 negotiations on the reform of the CAP sets the framework within which the agricultural industry will develop in the immediate future. That framework is built around improving the competitiveness of the European agricultural and agri-food sectors on internal and world markets and, side by side with that policy, the recognition of the need for a more integrated rural policy which reaches beyond the farm and which also encompasses the protection of the rural environment.

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