Rural Voices Seminar Series - Seminar 13

The 13th session of the Rural Voices series featured Dr Shane Conway from the Discipline of Geographys Rural Studies Centre at the University of Galway who presented his recent work developing a new social organisation for the farming community called Farmers Yards, from concept to implementation. With over one third of Irish farmers over the age of 65, Farmers Yards is helping to address recent calls recently made by the European Commission for an increased emphasis on mechanisms that help older farmers enhance their `quality of life by exploring possibilities under social policy by providing farmers with a platform to come together as a local peer group in a familiar and friendly Livestock Mart setting. This is an important shift in focus, as previous policy aimed at stimulating generational renewal in agriculture in Ireland, such as the most recent Early Retirement Scheme for farmers (ERS3), for example, requesting farmers to `cease all agricultural activity forever upon retirement placed no regard on the wellbeing of the older generation of the farming, overlooking their identity and social circles in later life.