Attracting farmers into Forestry.

Abstract

The financial incentives to encourage farmers to convert land from agricultural to forestry use have been substantially increased. However, the rate of farmers entering the afforestation scheme has been lower than predicted. Many factors have had a role to play in this including increases in the price of land, lack of a forestry culture in Ireland and competing agricultural schemes. A lot of work needs to be done in the areas of market development and promotion of Irish timber if the full potential of the afforestation programme is to be realised.