Ireland's agriculture is characterised by an ageing farmer population and small average farm sizes. These structural issues are shared by a number of European countries and have been identified as barriers to sustainable growth in the sector. While farms with an identified successor usually enter a path of expansion and growth, farms without a successor at some point follow a route of winding down and extensification. Such retirement farming could potentially become an issue for food security and sustainable land use. Understanding the retirement decisions of farmers without a successor is key to address this issue. To this end a survey was conducted with Irish farmers including questions surrounding succession and retirement. About half of the surveyed farmers did not have a successor and two thirds of those did not intend to fully retire from active farming in the future. A logistic regression analysis of the collected data showed that placing a high value on family tradition in farming and only receiving a state pension had a negative effect on the intention to retire, while being aware of changing pension ages had a positive effect. A follow up qualitative study explored the perceptions of farmers without a successor regarding various land transfer options. The participants mainly anticipated negative consequences arising from selling the farm and full retirement such as the loss of land and the end of the farming activity. Other options such as the long-term leasing of part of the land or entering into a partnership with a younger farmer were regarded as having more positive consequences. These included a lowering of the workload, allowing a continuing involvement in farm work, and the ability to be able to stay on the farm.

This paper presents the relationship between an environmental protection scheme, established in Ireland in 1994 under EU Regulation No. 2078, and the livelihoods of Irish farm households. It explores this relationship within the framework of the new policy environment for EU agriculture and rural areas as set out in Agenda 2000. At the centre of this new policy environment is the European model for agriculture, embodying the concept of multifunctionality, which recognizes the pivotal position of an evolving agricultural sector in enhancing the viability of rural areas through broadening the assets of farm families. Research undertaken with farm households in the west of Ireland indicates a positive relationship between the Rural Environmental Protection Scheme and the economic and natural assets upon which they build their livelihoods. The case of a small-scale dairy farm household is presented, showing clearly the positive impact of the scheme, while also highlighting the vulnerability of these improvements. A major challenge facing policy-makers is the extent to which acceptable levels of income and an enhanced natural environment on such farms can be sustained. The position of advisory and research institutions in strengthening human capacities on farms is highlighted and their enhanced role is suggested in order to give meaning to multifunctional and sustainable agriculture within the context of rural area viability. Copyright

Quality of Life is commonplace term, which is rarely adequately defined. The complexity of the concept and its interpretation pose challenges for measurement. The improvement of the quality of life of farm families is an aim of the Teagasc Planning Post Fischler Programme. The primary aim of the research in this paper was to establish a baseline measure of the quality of life of farm families. A secondary research aim was to compare the quality of life of farm families with others. The research survey was carried out with 344 families (farm, non-farm rural and urban). Quality of life was defined as the perception and feeling about one's current life experience (including family, social, economic/work, personal development/success). Farm families work longer hours and have greater income uncertainty but, overall there was no significant difference between their quality of life and that of rural and urban dwellers. The findings regarding a number of key factors relating to quality of life are documented. In order to derive a comparative measure of quality of life a 'life quality index' was constructed. The index included variables relating to: social activities; involvement in organisations; attitudes towards incomes; expenses; borrowings; hours of work; life; and quality of life. The research findings serve the purpose of informing extension agents about quality of life and providing a baseline for future measurement.

Advisory services in Ireland have evolved towards a technical focus, away from the farm family and household. However, even though there is less overall involvement of families in the running of farms, decision-making is influenced by more than the farm operator. Teagasc introduced the 'Opportunities for Farm Families Programme' in 2001, which recognised that the challenges facing farmers required a 'whole family' response. The fundamental objective of the programme is to help farm families generate additional household income and improve quality of life. The aim of the research outlined in this paper was to determine the views and attitudes of advisers and farm families to the programme. The majority of advisers and participants considered that the programme helped farm families to take a realistic look at their current situation and was useful in terms of identifying ideas to improve their income and quality of life. Families who participated together derived greater benefit than individuals. The key lesson learned from this research was the importance of early evaluation of new advisory approaches. Educational institutions and extension agents need to highlight the importance of an objective assessment of both the deliverers' (advisers) and target groups' (participants) views on extension programmes. For assessments during programme delivery to be successful, they must be focused on the development of the programme and not the monitoring of extension agents. The information gathered from assessments should be used to guide the further development of programmes and appropriate training for advisers.

Ireland's agriculture is characterised by an ageing farmer population and small average farm sizes. Past policy schemes developed to address these issues have been targeted at accelerating succession and retirement processes in agriculture. Their success however was limited. The process of succession, inheritance and retirement is complex and the decisionmaking of farm families in these situations is influenced by many factors. In order to develop more successful policies to encourage the early transfer of land and to increase farm sizes a better understanding of these factors is necessary. The paper addresses this question by employing a Neural Network Analysis with data collected through a survey of Irish farmers' perception on succession and land mobility measures in 2012. The analysis shows that while many farmers in general are in favour of various land mobility measures, they would not consider taking advantage of any of them, which in part could be explained by a large number of farmers being unwilling to totally retire from farming.