Lack of generational change. Experts affirm this when they analyze the situation in the field of Tenerife. A serious problem because it slows down the growth of the primary sector. It has never been easy to dedicate yourself to agriculture or livestock due to the hardness and sacrifice of the work itself, together with the low profitability, but it is even more so in times of crisis. Eternal crisis that today materializes in the high production costs derived from the war in Ukraine and the difficulties in transport due to the strike in the Peninsula. Crises and input prices pose very powerful obstacles to the timid return to agriculture, starting in 2020, derived from the pandemic. The public company Management and Territorial and Environmental Planning (Gesplan) promotes this generational change with a program of aid to young people. It does so through direct aid for the management and viability of farms. It is a way to guarantee the future of the sector from the institutional initiative and overcome the secular abandonment of the island’s countryside.
The CEO of Gesplan, Agoney Piñero, explains that the project, called Advice on Subsidies for the Creation of Companies by Young Farmers and Ranchers, has as its main objective “to offer information on aid for the start-up of companies and their first installation”. A key step to “facilitate the incorporation of young people into the field”.
The initiative stems from a request to the entity by the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries of the Government of the Canary Islands. It started in 2016 and to date more than 600 people have been advised, which has allowed 386 to receive help. Thus, Piñero values, “they have been able to become entrepreneurs within the agricultural and livestock sector.” There are already 386 hopes of finding a way of life in the countryside. Those interested can direct their request for advice to the email [email protected].
Star measure.
Augusto Hernández has been the General Director of Agriculture of the Government of the Canary Islands since September 2020. He considers this boost to professional development in the primary sector of young people between 18 and 40 years of age one of the “star measures” in this mandate together with the modernization of farms and irrigation. In all the lines, the applicants of this age range are scored more. All planning is included in the Regional Development Program (PDR) of the Canary Islands, Hernández recalls that “Gesplan enables the viability of projects with a subsidy that ranges from the basic premium of 18,000 euros to a maximum of 70,000.”
He emphasizes that “if a development of the business plan is not seen, it is rejected. There are those who practically run away because it is not that easy either and you have to fine-tune to avoid having to return the money ». For this, a scale is established and points are given. Those who are above that limit are approved and those who are not, go to a reserve list. Within a system of free jurisdictional competition. Hernández values that “it is about favoring that much-needed generational change.”
The general director details that “during the confinement due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the primary sector, with exceptions such as cut flowers or wines, was maintained because it was necessary to eat and food production was valued.” In addition, he adds, “the mentality changed and new alternatives for the future were sought, including dedication or return to the field to put abandoned plots into production.” In this regard, without exact data, the sources calculate the increase in cultivated area on the Island at 15% in the last two years after more than a decade of downward trend with punctual rises. In the twelve years between 2007 and 2019, the decrease has been about 7,000 hectares, 70 million square meters, the equivalent of about 14,000 football fields.
The current crisis, caused by the conflict in Ukraine, has exponentially increased energy costs that revert to the price of inputs and the final product that reaches the consumer. The line of action involves giving prestige to the local, kilometer 0, to improve the current 10% to 12% self-sufficiency.
Ecological agriculture.
Miguel López is secretary of the Coordinator of Farmers and Ranchers Organizations (COAG) in Tenerife and a connoisseur of the island’s countryside. He sentences: “The future lies in organic farming and that is where we must focus the efforts of young people.” He warns that “I would not like to bring the boys near a gorge either because this is a complicated sector.” López understands that “the aid must go, even more than until now, to organic farming.” He clarifies that “today, the generational change in a conventional farm is only profitable if it was already profitable before being inherited.” For the ecological he understands that “there are more techniques and wisdom than in all history, to carry it forward, but more aid and a differentiated regulatory framework are needed.”
López values the European strategy “from farm to table”. To comply with it, he considers it key to “encourage young people with appropriate measures to dedicate themselves to organic farming.” Among them “providing more resources to the Gesplan tutoring plan”.
The objective, “in addition to training and tutoring” is “to make the operation profitable beyond the aid period. When there is economic profitability, people will return to the countryside. López reflects: “Today prices continue to be set from top to bottom and they have to be set from bottom to top. The production costs of the farmer and the rancher must set these prices. The secretary of the COAG understands that “there always seems little to us the resources to promote the relief because there are many more farmers and ranchers who retire than those who join.” He maintains his hope in the Food Chain Law to prioritize local production despite the handicap of “increasingly expensive inputs.”
Miguel López emphasizes: “We are not going to compete with continental productions but rather we will prioritize excellence and quality, although the population must have access to our products.” He gives the example of the eco-dining rooms “which have worked very well.” He considers to conclude that there has been a positive change in the perception of the farmer by society. “Before, it was thought that this was what someone who did not know how to do anything else was dedicated to,” he says.
