A green, clean and productive land
Agriculture and country living have undergone huge change in Northern Ireland. As well as embracing new technology and modern practices the region’s largest industry is also returning to many of the more traditional ways of farming.
Farmers and landowners are managing the countryside in more environmentally friendly ways using traditional methods of dry stonewalls and hedges for field boundaries. Habitats are being created to encourage declining farmland birds to breed and archaeological features, such as ancient ruins, are being protected from damage.
And who would have imagined rural areas making way for health spas and centres of well-being offering seaweed baths? Much more than a cottage industry, rural development is now diverse, imaginative and energetic. Outhouses, traditionally housing farm animals, have become hotbeds for micro businesses that sell their products throughout the British Isles.
Organic farming is an emerging sector and is already offering significant opportunities for farmers to develop new products and also to contribute to rural development and healthy local economies.
