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    Zwei von fünf Landwirten haben keinen formellen Nachfolger, da die alternde Bevölkerung die drohende Nachfolgekrise anheizt


    Zwei von fünf Landwirten haben keinen formellen Nachfolger, da die alternde Bevölkerung die drohende Nachfolgekrise anheizt

    https://www.irishexaminer.com/farming/arid-41779571.html

    Von TeoKajLibroj

    View 14 Comments

    14 Kommentare

    1. Own-Discussion5527 on

      Cool. Let the government buy large chunks of land back and start rewilding it and repairing our ecosystem

    2. theoldkitbag on

      Made the point before; the state ought to have a fund to retire farmland as old farmers age out. They could even structure it as a form of reverse mortgage. It’s a perfect opportunity for recapturing back land for the public good.

    3. Playful-Parsnip-3104 on

      Without intending to convey that this isn’t a serious problem, I wonder if the survey responses have been skewed by the green cert requirement. You can’t inherit a farm without a green cert. I wonder if ‚formal successor‘ in the survey was defined as someone who could take over the farm today if needed – i.e. someone who has a green cert. I expect many farms have a clear successor in mind (namely a child) who hasn’t yet obtained his green cert, so can’t be formally named as such.

      I know a few farmers who were in this situation until recently: their children wanted to inherit the farm, but weren’t yet old enough or hadn’t yet had time to complete the prerequisite courses needed for a green cert. They all now have their green certs and could technically take over the farm at any time, but perhaps if they’d been surveyed in this way a couple of years ago their farms would have entered the statistics as ‚lacking a formal successor.‘

      Certainly any farmer who has himself inherited his farm in the last few years is less likely to have adult children ready to take over from him, which makes the two-in-five statistic much less scary when you think about it.

    5. disagreeabledinosaur on

      I’m thinking of a farmer I know.

      He is in his 30s. His dad still farms but ownership of the farm has been passed down because that’s been incentivised*

      My 30 something year old friend has no formal successor, although there’s a good chance it’ll be one of his preschool aged kids.

      In the context of this kind of arrangement, I do wonder how much of technical arrangements on the ground are obscuring statistics like these from having any meaning.

      Older farmers with a clear successor may have already passed ownership to the successor for tax reasons. If you only look at older farmers, then you miss a big cohort who have already handed on the farm. The ones left are naturally the ones without a succession plan.

      Younger farmers don’t have a successor because they don’t need one. If you look at all farmers, then you’re including a big cohort for whom succession planning is not urgent.

      *I’m a city person so not sure on these details.

    6. dropthecoin on

      This is a topical and important issue. The coming change in global trade and interdependency means food security is going to be a critical factor for every country.

    7. Complex_Hunter35 on

      Could be a time to start testing genetically engineered crops. With climate change thats going to become something we need. Farming id changing.

    8. oshinbruce on

      Farming is a tough profession and if you only had 1-2 kids I could see many passing it up. Its also so restrictive if your dealing with animals, Holidays cost you twice to get help on the farm.

    10. disguiso-baby on

      Speaking from personal experience, there are farmers who could comfortably wind down, lease their land, and live out their later years on a secure pension. The difficulty isn’t financial necessity, but the desire to keep farming on their own terms, without what they see as “interference“ [meaning modernisation or change]. See: my parents and all their neighbours, who are still farming in their late 70s.

    11. 5555555555558653 on

      Good.

      We should support our farmers while they’re in the profession, but on a macro scale, less farmers, and farmers (not corporate) owning bigger / consolidated farms is better for the future of the profession.

      A natural decline is preferable to a collapse.

    12. cyberlexington on

      My wife dated a farmers son once. The farmer worked every hour he could to send his kids to uni so they wouldn’t have to become farmers.

    13. denbo786 on

      My grandad died in 1995 and was the sole owner with no will. Now in 2026 for a whole host of reasons its still in his name and not actively farmed

    14. MrStarGazer09 on

      Some of the comments here are wild. It’s like people think food just magically appears in Supermarkets and also have zero sense of Ireland’s heritage.

      To those suggesting rewilding everything, with a massively growing population, where do you suggest we get our food from? Or should we go back to foraging?

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