Background to the Research

• The Changing Farm Economic Project sought to explore the structure of the farm economy, the impact of changing agricultural policy and the attitudes of farmers to these changes. The views of farmers were sought and set within the context of rural development.
  

Research Approach

• The study employed a multi-dimensional research approach using localities throughout Europe. In relation to Northern Ireland, questionnaires were administered to farmers living in North Down and West Fermanagh alongside an ethnographic study and analysis of the political culture and climate of policy-making.
  

Main Findings

• Farming accounts for 42% of Fermanagh's workforce, the manufacturing sector is minimal and the service sector is heavily dependent on the farming community. The area is heavily dependent on tourism.
• Ninety-two per cent of Fermanagh is designated 'Older Less Favoured Area' and 6% 'New Less Favoured Area'.
• Unemployment (largely structural) is around 25% and there is considerable under-employment on farms in the area.
• Between 1985 and 1991, the number of rural community associations rose from 15 to 52. Village associations doubled from 11 to 22 and the town-land associations currently number 16.
• The Rural Action Project and its offshoot, the Rural Development Project, adopted a community development approach in which existing organisations representing local opinion and aspirations were tapped into and new organisations established.
• The success of rural development will rest on the capacity of the community groups to project a collective voice and to articulate their experiences and aspirations.
• Rural development has been rooted in practical work in the community and there is convergence between the objectives of policy and practice. Rural development policy is focused on the grassroots and the indigenous community looks towards policy and the rural development initiatives.
• The Farm Diversification Programme has failed to achieve convergence of focus, although it has been welcomed and used by local farmers. Few farmers have embraced the ideology of diversification; fewer have the financial wherewithal or the confidence to diversify.
• Many farmers feel caught between the crumbling old order of intensification and specialisation and the new order of diversification. Cynicism is evident among ordinary farmers as well as in their organisations.
• The Farm Diversification Programme has at least conveyed the notion of diversification and opened up its potential to farmers. It has made more of an impact than the Department of Agriculture's various diversification grants.
• The vision of a new model farm economy espoused by policy makers has been engaged by West Fermanagh's community groups, but has not travelled beyond these to the farming households. The world view of the older generation of farmers who control the majority of holdings still prevails.
• The study enabled the re-creation of the cultural context for rural development policy and practice. This revealed that dialogue concerning the sought after changes are a process of acculturation. The representation of farmers' viewpoints demonstrates the distance that needs to be travelled before diversification is accepted as an orthodoxy.