Spain’s aging farmers try to sow seeds of future

PATONES DE ABAJO, Spain. — Manuel Gabriel had to rig up a miniature drinking trough for his bees this summer when drought dried up all the streams.

"Now there’s plenty of water but it looks as if they’ve got used to drinking here," he says as the insects jostle for space around a hollowed-out brick next to a dozen hives with vertiginous views over pine-clad valleys.

Gabriel’s father and grandfather were beekeepers before him, but his children are unwilling to carry on.

"It’s hard physical work. You have to climb and carry a lot of heavy stuff and in summer you need to be up here at 5 a.m. because it soon gets too hot to work," says his wife, Julia Melones, who has been 28 years in the job.

Gabriel, who is now 61, and Melones, 58, expect to carry on beekeeping for another four or five years and then sell up.

The couple typify one of the problems facing agriculture in Spain and many other European countries — aging farmers and few new recruits to work the land.

Traditional farms and methods may be in decline and agriculture’s role in the economy has shrunk, but Spain has products that could keep its rural population in business.

It produces more olive oil than Italy, exports more wine than France and its organic fruit and vegetables are fast gaining ground in northern Europe.

Add to that the potential for biofuels and steadily growing demand for meat, as immigration swells the population and living standards rise, and the future does not look so grim.

Better marketing of quality products and alternative uses of crops could improve returns and help attract younger people, farming sources say.

The Small Farmers’ Union (UPA) is concerned at the number of farms being abandoned as elderly owners retire, and in December launched a "rural pride" campaign.

One million people work in agriculture, but of those only 300,000 are full-time professionals, the union says. Farmers are depressed. They have lost faith in their work, in part because of a succession of changes in European Union agricultural policy, and they feel scorned by the rest of the population.

"All efforts to draw in young people have failed ... We estimate that 35 to 40 farms are shutting every day," UPA says.

Javier Acevedo, who farms 800 hectares (2,000 acres) of grains and olives in the north of the Madrid region, was new to farming some 25 years ago and tried to make a success of organic crops.

"I love agriculture, but I’m pretty skeptical now," he says.

"Organic farming here is a complete disaster. There’s no market." He struggled with paperwork and invested substantial amounts to register as an organic producer.

Putting Spain’s 17 regional governments in charge of organic farming has fragmented the national market, as each region now has its own rules, he says.

"I wanted to sell my organic grain to livestock breeders in Cadiz but I found it was easier to export it to France."

Although Spanish consumers are unwilling to pay extra for more naturally produced fruit and vegetables, German, Dutch and British customers are lapping them up.

Organic produce accounts for only 1 percent of spending on food in Spain. The ministry launched a campaign in November to boost consumer awareness of organic food.

Energy crops are a growth area. Grain yields are low in Spain — about 2 tons a hectare — so the country is ideal for energy crops because the EU subsidies of 45 euros a hectare look attractive, a source at Spain’s biggest bioethanol producer Abengoa says.

Julio Escobar, a grain farmer in the central region of Palencia, signed a contract with Abengoa in April this year and delivered 150,000 tonnes of wheat and barley via his local cooperative in September.

But by committing his crop so far ahead, he missed out on the rise in the market price since spring.

"Now I could get at least 27 or 28 pesetas a kilo for something I sold in April for 18," he says.

Nonetheless he says the concept of energy crops is good.

"I think biofuels are a good option for us farmers, for the environment and for everyone and will have a lot of future."

Josep Puxeu, the Agriculture Ministry’s secretary general for food and agriculture, says farming is becoming ever more important simply as a means of looking after the countryside and suggests Spain’s traditional crops are far from dead.

"In general it is the Mediterranean crops that have most potential and are market-oriented, for example sectors like olive oil where we are the number one producer in the world," he told Reuters.