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to their urban counterparts, and farming does not look like
such an attractive profession for an ambitious and determined
young man or woman. In some developing countries, it is even
equated with punishment as those serving prison sentences
have to farm in the fields, thereby giving it an image as a non-
career for the lowest of the low and the poorest of the poor. In
order to counter this trend and inject youth back into farming
across the world, steps must be taken to overcome these chal-
lenges. If farming can become a more financially attractive job,
then changes in attitudes towards it will come too.
The conditions for young people entering the agricultural
sector and staying afloat in it must be improved if we are to see
an increase in young farmers at work. The barriers to entry in
Europe in particular – but across the world too – consist most
importantly of a lack of access to land and capital/credit. Land
is in high demand, especially for Europe, and land prices are
forever increasing. This makes it particularly difficult for young
farmers to start their own family farm or to expand the family
farm that they have inherited. The European Council of Young
Farmers (CEJA) advocates public support to help young farmers
to buy such land, particularly if it is their first farm and they want
to get their feet off the ground. Installation aid such as this has
successfully been implemented in the EU, with up to €70,000
available per young farmer to help with start-up costs, as long as
they can present a viable business plan for their farm. However,
this is only implemented if a member state chooses it as an option
in its Rural Development Programme, and therefore it cannot yet
be said how effective it will be on the ground. Secondly, access to
capital and credit (which also affects access to land of course) is
very hard to come by, especially for young people with no assets
or security to speak of, and especially in the wake of the global
financial crisis. In order to address this and to attempt to assist
new young farmers struggling with low returns on high invest-
ments in the first years of business, the EU has also provided
young farmers with an annual top-up of their direct payments for
the first five years of their farm. It is essential that this additional
support is applied to young farmers in order to assist them with
entering the sector – not just in the EU, but across the world.
The most difficult years of business for a farmer are his/her first
ones – at least the first five. They have to invest in land, produce,
labour and machinery with no prospect of any financial return for
at least one year. It takes significant capital to be able to achieve
this. It is for this reason that young farmers need more assistance
than their older counterparts who, whether they are a new farmer
or not, are already likely to have capital to invest. This combination
of an available lump sum to help you start your farm combined
with supplementary income support in the first years of farming
consists of the most substantial support for young farmers across
the world, even though it still does not go far enough. As a model
of support though, these two complementarymeasures, combined
with others, should be advocated and promoted across the world.
However, CEJA has also called for a number of other measures to
be used alongside these in order to quell the current serious age
crisis in Europe and beyond. With one third of all EU farmers
over the age of 65, it is time to take serious action, and to act as an
example to the rest of the world – where the average age is not
quite as bad yet, but it is undoubtedly following the same trend.
CEJA advocates other ways, not just income support, to
assist young farmers too. In terms of access to credit, CEJA
calls for a bank guarantee from the European Investment Bank
for European young farmers, in order to give them the secu-
rity they need to borrow money from their national bank. This
could easily be transposed to a global scale. CEJA also advocates
state aid for land acquisition for young farmers, facilitating
access to land and getting a young farmer’s feet off the ground
– this could also be used in other places. Finally, CEJA believes
not just in financial support from the state, but also in the use
of succession brokers for emotional, financial, legal and tech-
nical advice when it comes to transferring the family farm to
the younger generation – thereby encouraging this to happen
at an earlier age for the younger farmer. Finally, CEJA is also
considering potential options or systems in terms of invest-
ment banks and other private entities which may be interested
in cooperating with a young farmer and his or her enterprise.
The ageing trend in the farming population is a serious threat
to the current family farming model which should be recognized
for its potential for meeting food demand across the globe in a
localized and sustainable manner. Add to this the fact that farms
owned by those under 40 are on average more productive and
employ more labour, and it seems that rejuvenating the global
farming population presents a number of solutions as well as
additional opportunities for an increase and improvement in
high-quality local food production across the world. However,
in order to achieve food security in a sustainable way and to
protect the family farming model, young farmers across the globe
need support to either start their farm or to inherit their family’s
farm, and to improve it. In the EU, measures are already in place
as part of the Common Agricultural Policy and, although it is
yet to be seen how effective they are in concrete terms, it is an
important political signal and a significant step forwards in terms
of recognition of the issue. This, as well as other, more innovative
solutions for the future such as CEJA has suggested in terms of
access to credit and succession assistance, must now be spread
and mirrored in other parts of the world where the future of
family farming is facing exactly the same challenges.
Younger generations need more support in order to establish a secure and
sustainable future for family farming in the context of global food security
Image: CEJA
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