Farmers across Europe are taking action to make visible the problems threatening the primary sector. Among the most pressing problems are the low prices they suffer and the excessive bureaucracy they endure. In the case of Spain, the main organizations will take action these days to secure its future. However, the future of this profession looks quite dark due to the lack of generational change in the field. Only 0.23% of land in Spain is managed by people under 25. According to a study by the Ministry of Agriculture (MAPA), the rate of people under the age of 35 working professionally in rural areas is less than 5%. “When you’re young, you have to work really hard to dedicate yourself to the fields. The cost of materials is very high, a tractor costs 200,000 euros,” says Marcos Garcés, a 36-year-old Teruel farmer. High costs of land and machinery, lack of services in cities and the bad image of the profession are some of the main reasons that keep new generations away from the primary sector.
Young farmers have long decried the obstacles preventing new generations from working in rural areas.. Diana Lenzi, President of the European Young Farmers’ Council (JSCA), argued that the Common Agricultural Policy “offers nothing new” and “failed to foster generational change”. In the European Union, only 10% of agricultural professionals are under 44 years of age. Marcos Garcés agrees on this point, assuring that current agricultural policies do not encourage youth participation. “Those who have been working in the fields for 20 years receive more benefits than those of us who have been working for less, based on the historical rights laid out in the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP),” he explains. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, 91% of direct CAP subsidies are received by people over 40 years of age, and 38.14% are received by people over 65 years of age.
This pattern is repeated in animal husbandry; 56% of livestock farmers have already reached retirement age or will do so this decade.According to a recent analysis carried out by the animal husbandry department of the COAG association, based on the agricultural census, this will mean a mass withdrawal of the “baby boom” generation. That is why COAG Agricultural Youth coordinator Luis Pérez asked last October to “roll out the red carpet” for young people joining the sector, as 200,000 young people are needed for the long-awaited generation change to take place.
However, it is not easy to attract young people to a sector like the mainstream sector. “This is a difficult job and is increasingly surrounded by bureaucracy and regulatory demands.”says Juan Valero de Palma, secretary general of the Spanish National Federation of Irrigation Societies. “Normally this is inherited from parents to children, but there are already many parents who advise their children to seek their future away from agriculture,” explains Valero de Palma.
Cost of land and lack of services
Marcos Garcés also points out the high cost of agricultural land and increasing speculation as part of the problem of access to land.. “If you do not come from a farming family and inherit land, it is almost impossible to devote yourself to the countryside. Land is becoming more and more expensive. Someone starting from scratch will have to do something. An investment of 2-3 million euros,” he explains.
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This means that it is only farm children who have the opportunity to devote themselves to the countryside, if they have the courage. “Policies are needed to move young people into the primary sector. Maybe not everyone needs the same thing. Some will have problems settling in rural areas and owning a homeothers will need some job training… there is no single solution,” he says.
It is the lack of services and the abandonment of rural areas that groups in depopulated Spain have already condemned many times. They also oppose the inclusion of young people in the field. “For example, in the area where I live, there are fewer educational services for my children. I will have to spend money and gas to get them to school,” says Garcés.