Struggles face young farming hopefuls
AGRICULTURE WEEK IS UNDERWAY in Ontario – and along with it begins a new four-year, four-country research project based out of the University of Guelph, to help ensure the next generation of farmers succeed across the globe.
Prof. Sharada Srinivasan, a sociologist, received $286,000 from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council in late September to assemble a global team to study young farmers’ pathways to agriculture, in Canada, India, Indonesia and China. She’s travelling to China and India later this month to start work with research teams there.
Srinivasan is particularly interested in learning about impediments that make farming difficult for young producers, about success stories in overcoming them, and in developing and recommending policies that will help young famers everywhere.
Canada, she says, is a model in many ways for other countries. It’s already taken steps to respond to what Srinivasan calls farming’s “generational crisis” – that is, the gap between the aging farm population, and young farmers wanting to get started in the discipline.
“The government has recognized the problem, programs such as FarmStart are underway and there is a significant level of awareness in the farm community that something needs to be done to help address this situation,” she says.
Srinivasan, who at Guelph holds the Canada Research Chair in Gender, Justice and Development, knows situations for entrylevel farmers differ across the globe.
For example, with farm labour in such short supply, Canadian farmers have adopted more and more mechanization, especially as they’ve grown bigger. But ironically, that may mean less work is available for sons or daughters they’re planning to bring into their operations.
It’s the opposite in India, where labour is in relative abundance. But farm incomes are very low, as is the status of farmers. Many young men shun it in favour of trying to get urban jobs.
In both countries, access to land and credit is imperative for young farmers starting out, particularly if they aren’t already part of a family farm. In some cases, the amount they’ll need to borrow is staggering. And in other cases, low incomes mean credit is hard to find.
Such factors do not have a direct connection to agronomic matters that would help farmers succeed, such as soil fertility and adequate precipitation. But, says Srinivasan, if they are limiting young people from entering farming, they are highly influencing the future of agriculture.
And that’s certainly something to ponder this week as we recognize the importance of agriculture to Ontario.
Vital statistics abound about the farm sector’s value. The ministry of agriculture, food and rural affairs calls Ontario farmers “key to the success of the province’s agri-food sector.” The sector generates almost $36 billion in Gross Domestic Product and employs nearly 790,000 Ontarians, producing more than 200 different commodities.
The ministry says almost 65 per cent of Ontario farmers’ harvest is purchased by Ontario food processors and made into high-quality, locally grown products. “Without the dedication of hard-working Ontario farmers, our agri-food sector would not be as successful as it is today,” says agriculture, food and rural affairs minister Jeff Leal.
Given farming’s importance to the province – and indeed, the significance of agriculture to the entire planet – researcher Srinivasan says pathways for the next generation of farmers must be as smooth as possible, and that current impediments be dealt with.
“Agriculture has to respond,” she says. “If visions of a sustainable agricultural future is to be realized, and if young people are going to have a place in that future, the problems they face establishing themselves as farmers must be given serious attention in research and policy debate.”