The Irish Farmers Association is appealing to the Government to ring-fence the sector from cuts in October's Budget.
The IFA says low income farmers are among those to have suffered the worst of the impact of the economic crisis.
The farming lobby group says funding cuts in agriculture have been disproportionate in recent years, down by 41.2% since 2008 compared with a reduction of 12.6% in other Goverment departments.
The IFA President John Bryan is calling on the Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney to robustly defend farmers:
