With Doris Lapple, Alan Renwick, UCD, and Fiona Thorne, Teagasc

1. Agri-Business and Rural Development
School of Agriculture and Food Science.
Doris Läpple1, Alan Renwick1 and Fiona Thorne2
1 Agri-Business and Rural Development, School of Agriculture and Food Science,
University College Dublin, Ireland.
2 Rural Economy and Development Programme, Teagasc, Ashtown, Dublin 15,
Ireland.
Innovation
in the Irish Agri-food sector:
Farm level focus

2. Farm Level Innovation
• Motivation for research
– Important for growth of the agri-food sector
– Sustainable intensification
– Identified challenges from stakeholder and
indicator analyses
• Content of research
– Design of innovation index
– Assess current situation
– Identify drivers and barriers
2

3. Farm Level Innovation Index
• Design of innovation index based on Teagasc
National Farm Survey data
– Adopted innovations and innovation behaviour
• New technologies/ farm practices
• Investment in new knowledge
• Renewal of machinery
– Farm system specific weights assigned by experts
– Final score between 0 and 1
3

4. Innovative Performance by Farm System
4
0
10000
20000
30000
40000
50000
60000
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
Dairy Cattle
Rearing
Cattle Other Sheep Tillage Mixed
Livestock
Innovation Average FFI

5. Regional Innovative Performance
5

6. Regional Innovative Performance
6
Over 90% cattle
and sheep
farms

7. Regional Innovative Performance
7
Over 90% cattle
and sheep
farms
> 50% cattle
and sheep
farms

8. Regional Innovative Performance
8
Over 90% cattle
and sheep
farms
> 50% cattle
and sheep
farms
20% tillage
farms

9. Regional Innovative Performance
• A closer look...
– Southeast region
• Cattle farms are more innovative than cattle farms in
the remaining regions (0.46 vs 0.32)
• Dairy farms show above average innovative
performance (0.72 vs 0.62)
– East region
• Dairy farms achieve the highest innovative
performance (0.76 vs 0.62)
– Border region
• Sheep farms are above average (0.45 vs 0.37)
– South region
• Dairy farms are below average (0.51 vs 0.62)
• Cattle farms are the least innovative (0.19 vs 0.32)
9

10. Characteristics of Innovative Performance
Low innovative
performance
(bottom 25%)
‘Laggards’
Average
innovative
performance
‘Majority’
High innovative
performance
(top 25% )
‘Innovators’
Family farm income € 11,553 € 23,202 € 45,649
Market income € -2,234 € 2,517 € 16,997
Share of SFP to FFI 70% 71% 46%
Net new investments € 1,506 € 6,610 € 16,620
Borrowings € 5,197 € 17,692 € 56,274
Solvency rate 0.7% 2.2% 5.5%
10

11. Characteristics of Innovative Performance
• Laggards have below average farm incomes
• Innovators have above average incomes
11

12. Drivers and Barriers of Innovative
Performance
Positive Negative No impact
Dairy (relative to
other systems)
Cattle, Sheep
(relative to Dairy)
Tillage, Mixed livestock
(relative to Dairy)
Farm size Age Solvency rate
LU/ha Off-farm job Size of household
Access to loans
Agricultural
education
12

13. Summary
• Starting point to raise discussion on innovation
– Data constraints
– Refine measure (complexity of innovation)
– One year snapshot
• Overview of current innovative performance of
the farm sector
13

14. Summary
• Differences between farm systems in innovative
performance (Dairy vs Cattle)
• Regional variation in innovative performance
(Southeast vs West)
• Farms with high innovative performance differ
from less innovative farms (farm incomes,
investments, subsidies)
• Access to loans, agricultural education, farm size
and intensity have a positive effect on innovation,
while age and off-farm job act as constraints
14

15. Recommendations
• Facilitate farm level innovation
– Structural change
• Farm partnerships, taxation , CAP support
– Access to funding sources
• Alternative funding arrangements
– Education / advisory services
• Centres of excellence
15

16. Acknowledgements
• The Bank of Ireland for funding the research
• Teagasc National Farm Survey Department for
providing data
• Karen Keaveney for map production
16