Friday 28 November 2008, San José, Costa
Rica
SOUTH AMERICA:
Young People Want to
Give Farming a Chance
By Fabiana Frayssinet
RIO DE JANEIRO (IPS) -
Unlike so many in their
grandparents’
generation, today’s
young farmers in South
America’s Mercosur trade
bloc say they want to
live off the land where
they were born, and not
move to cities where
there is no longer a
place for them.
But they are asking for
public policies that
will guarantee their
livelihood. Without such
support, attaining their
dreams will be an uphill
struggle.
Nelson Villar is a small
farmer from Los
Choapinos, in the
O’Higgins Region in
central Chile. At only
21, he is making the
most of every inch of
the half hectare he
owns, and the other two
he occasionally leases,
where he grows cherries
and raspberries.
But in this area, where
not long ago there were
12 families with an
average of five hectares
apiece making a living
from what they grew,
just like he does, now
there are only two.
"The city is moving to
the countryside," Villar
complains, referring to
the two export-oriented
companies that have
moved into the area,
after buying out small
farmers, thus
intensifying the process
of land concentration in
Los Choapinos.
Moreover, the companies’
activities pollute the
surrounding crops, the
young farmer says.
Villar is one of 39
participants in a
Training Course for
Young Farmers, organised
as part of the Tenth
Specialised Meeting on
Family Agriculture (REAF),
held by Mercosur
(Southern Common Market
-- made up of Argentina,
Brazil, Paraguay and
Uruguay, with Chile as
one of the associate
members) on Nov. 22-27
in Rio de Janeiro.
The meeting was made
possible by a grant from
the International Fund
for Agricultural
Development (IFAD), as
part of its sponsorship
of the bloc’s efforts to
promote dialogue between
small-scale producers
and governments in
support of family
farming.
Twenty-five year old
Janet Salazar and her
family grow garden
produce on a
five-hectare lot in the
province of Jujuy, in
northwest Argentina.
Like Villar, Salazar
wants to stay in the
countryside, on the land
she learned to love as
she played when she was
a little girl.
"Most young people leave
because they don’t see
any opportunities," not
because they want to
live in crowded cities
that do not offer
employment opportunities
either, she says.
The Rio de Janeiro
workshop is a chance for
the young farmers to
share experiences with
each other and with
organisations and
authorities of the
countries that make up
Mercosur.
The aim, according to
the organisers, is to
build a rural youth
agenda for the
development of public
policies to address
their needs, Alvaro
Ramos, Regional
Coordinator of the
IFAD-Mercosur Programme,
explained to IPS.
The course includes
modules on practical
subjects, such as access
to technology and
marketing techniques,
and others that deal
with more analytical
issues, such as the
increasing amount of
land in foreign hands.
Why begin with young
people? The answer can
be found in the
statistics. According to
one of the course
instructors, Luis
Caputo, more than 50
percent of Latin
America’s rural workers
are young people under
the age of 30.
But more importantly,
there are strategic
reasons for focusing on
the younger generations,
Ramos said. There is a
growing belief in the
region that family
farming policies cannot
be limited to addressing
short-term problems or
deploying compensatory
strategies; they must be
an integral part of the
economic model, he said.
The IFAD official said
that young farmers are
"agents of innovation"
and "social actors"
capable of reproducing
new models that will
strengthen that system
of production.
Ramos said the
prevailing model, which
does not put a priority
on family agriculture,
forces large numbers of
people to move to the
cities "in search of
work and a better life."
"We need to turn this
situation around,
implementing changes in
rural areas by adopting
long-term measures that
will bring about the
social inclusion of
young people in the
countryside," he added.
"We don’t want young
people to think about
policies that only deal
with the problems of
rural youths, but also
with issues such as
gender, access to land
and agrarian reform,
agricultural insurance
and trade facilitation,"
said Favio Pirone, one
of the course
coordinators.
According to information
presented at the REAF,
family farmers account
for approximately 80
percent of Mercosur’s
rural population. This
sector of the population
produces 60 percent of
the food consumed in the
region.
For the conference’s
organisers, it is a key
sector that must be
taken into account in
the definition of food
security strategies in
South America.
"We’re waking up,"
exclaims Gabriela Zarate,
a 20-year-old Paraguayan
woman who is working to
mobilise other young
people in her region.
Her neighbours "don’t
believe in anything
anymore," she says.
"They’ve lost hope
because, even if they
want to stay on the
land, they don’t have
any assistance to
cultivate it, or to
obtain technical
training or loans."
Zarate, who also studies
law and plans to apply
her legal training in
the future to solve
problems in rural areas,
is outraged by a remark
from an acquaintance who
said she decided to go
to law school because
she did not want to be a
peasant like her father.
"I love the land just as
much as my dad does. He
was the one who taught
me to appreciate it,"
stressed Zarate, who
works with her family on
a two-hectare farm where
they grow melons and
tomatoes to sell in the
market, and other crops,
such as cassava and
corn, for their own
consumption.
The three young farmers
listed a number of
demands made by their
generation, many of
which are shared with
their parents’
generation: greater
availability of credit,
assistance to purchase
fertilisers (which they
say are very costly),
trade policies, and
courses, schools and
universities in rural
areas.
They also demand more
land, technology
suitable to the needs of
small-scale farmers,
decent housing, and the
regularisation of land
titles and leases.
Salazar summed up their
demands: "What we need
is a plan to keep young
people firmly rooted in
the countryside."
"When our grandparents
migrated to urban areas,
they could still find
opportunities there,"
because "industries were
being developed," she
explained.
Now, however, "many
young people that were
forced to leave the
countryside for the city
are coming back
indignant and frustrated
because there are no
jobs for them there and
because they’re singled
out and marginalised for
being peasant farmers,
even though they produce
the raw materials that
supply the cities."
"They end up realising
that they want to go
back to where they
belong," she concluded.
And it is there that
these young people want
to stay, and not be
forced to leave.
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