Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 27 Nov 1990

Vol. 403 No. 1

Written Answers. - Farming Statistics.

Tony Gregory

Ceist:

77 Mr. Gregory asked the Taoiseach if he will outline (1) the total number of farmers in the country, (2) the number of full-time farmers, (3) the average estimated non-farm income of part-time farmers, (4) the total value of net farm income and (5) the distribution of farm income per decile for each year since 1980.

The Taoiseach

The information requested, in so far as it is available, is presented in the tables which I am including in the Official Report. Since several different data sources have been used and these have somewhat different coverage and concepts, careful attention should be paid to the accompanying notes.

(1) and (2): Table 1 gives estimates of the total number of farming landholders classified by the time they devoted to farm work. The data are derived from the periodic farm structures sample surveys conducted by the CSO between 1980 and 1987. The estimates relate to farming landholders where the area farmed was at least one hectare. The annual work unit (AWU) was taken as 2,200 hours per year. In the survey each farmer was required to indicate the estimated number of weeks, and average hours per week, spent on farm work in the previous year and this was expressed in AWU units.

Table 1: Farming landholders classified by annual work unit (AWU) class.

	AWU Class
Year	Less than 0.5	0.5 and less than 1.0	1.0 or more	Total
	(000)	(000)	(000)	(000)
1980	58.5	52.5	111.6	222.7
1983	62.6	58.4	98.9	219.9
1985	65.6	57.1	96.4	219.1
1987	72.3	51.4	91.8	215.6

(3): No information is available on the non-farm income of part-time farmers.

(4): Annual estimates of the aggregate income from self-employment and other trading income of agricultural producers for the years 1980 to 1989 inclusive are given in Table 2. The estimates are taken from the CSO's annual macroeconomic estimates of agricultural output, input and income. They represent the total amounts available to remunerate farmers, members of their families and other agricultural producers for their labour and management input and to cover interest on borrowed capital. Thus interest payments on borrowings for productive purposes are not deducted in arriving at this measure.

Table 2: Income from self-employment and other trading income of agricultural producers 1980 to 1989.

	£ million
1980	671.5
1981	786.5
1982	988.6
1983	1,136.3
1984	1,354.1
1985	1,218.8
1986	1,142.8
1987	1,393.3
1988	1,653.3
1989	1,727.3

(5): In Table 3 estimates are presented from the national farm surveys, which are conducted by Teagasc, of the average family farm income classified by farm income quintiles for the years 1984 to 1988 inclusive. Income classified by farm income deciles is not available nor is comparable information available for earlier years. The coverage of the national farm survey is restricted to family run farms and also excludes farms below 2 ha., rare farm types and farms identified in the farm structures surveys as being virtually inactive. Despite these exclusions, it is estimated that the farms represented account for around 95 per cent of total agricultural output. The family farm income concept used in the survey is calculated as the value of gross output less total net expenses (including interest payments).

Table 3: Average family farm income classified by farm income quintiles. 1984-1988

	Quintile
Year	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	All
	Average annual family farm income(£)
1984	-522	1,534	3,141	5,974	16,698	5,370
1985	-943	1,150	2,786	5,642	15,741	4,882
1986	-1,344	919	2,343	4,899	14,804	4,326
1987	-750	1,331	3,071	6,286	18,894	5,779
1988	-413	1,798	3,885	7,990	22,588	7,197