Ireland economy : irish agriculture

Irish economy

Photographic Book Ireland

Ireland pictures

Dublin city

Ireland map

Ireland relief

Ireland rivers and climate

Irish plants and animals

Ireland music and dance

Cultural institutions

Ireland has a mixed economy. The constitution provides that the state shall favour private initiative in industry and commerce, but the state may provide essential services and promote development projects in the absence of private initiatives. Thus, state-sponsored (“semi-state”) bodies operate the country’s rail and road transport, some of its television and radio stations, its electricity generation and distribution system, and its peat industry. State companies also are active in the fields of air transport and health insurance. The advent of a single European market in the 1990s encouraged many of these enterprises to privatize and become more competitive.

Presentation of Ireland economy

When Ireland joined the European Economic Community (EEC; now the European Union [EU]) in 1973, more than half of its trade was with the United Kingdom. Although this proportion has declined, economic relations between the two countries have remained close.
Ireland’s high-technology sector spurred economic growth during the 1990s and helped reduce unemployment to historically low levels. The economic boom, during which the country’s growth was more than double that of most other EU countries, led some analysts to label the country the “Celtic Tiger.”

Irisih economy. E. Buchot picture

Irish agriculture

Once the mainstay of the national economy, agriculture continues to be important. Most of Ireland’s agricultural land is used as pasture or for growing hay. The climate fosters abundant vegetable and other plant growth and is particularly beneficial to the rich grasslands that enable grazing stock to be kept on pasture almost year-round. Most farms are family farms; only a small percentage of those employed in agriculture work as hired labour. Mixed farming is the general pattern, with the production of beef cattle tending to predominate in the midlands and dairy farming in the south. Cereal growing is an important activity in the east and southeast. Sheep raising is widespread on the rugged hills and mountain slopes throughout the country.

Most of the gross agricultural output consists of livestock and livestock products, with beef as the biggest single item, followed by milk and pigs. Other important products are cereals (particularly barley and wheat), poultry and eggs, sheep and wool, and root crops, including sugar beets and potatoes. Indeed, enough beets are grown to meet the country’s sugar requirements. Since the 1980s farmhouse cheese production has flourished, and other specialized food production (e.g., organically produced vegetables) has increased. The bloodstock (Thoroughbred) industry is a thriving economic sector and has won worldwide fame for the Irish racehorse. Adverse conditions in export markets following World War II handicapped the expansion of Irish agriculture, and the subsequent growth of agricultural output was slower than that in the industrial and service sectors. This situation was ameliorated with the republic’s entrance into the EEC in 1973. After a two-decade decline, farm incomes began to rise in the 1990s. Britannica enciclopedia