Cheaper credit would not drive farmers to ruin

Readers of Elaine Byrne’s article last week headlined ‘Cheaper finance will make slaves of farmers’ might well be alarmed and conclude that farming is headed for a credit crash. But the idea that lower interest rates would fuel a Klondike-type rush by farmers is way off the mark.

Let’s agree on one thing: the prices paid to farmers are unsustainably low. Their income difficulties this year have been particularly acute across all sectors ...