Young farmers: putting Europe’s former El Dorado of farming back on the map

21.03.2014 7:45

Young farmers: putting Europe’s former El Dorado of farming back on the map

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I come from a country that between the two World Wars was known as Europe’s granary: everywhere you looked in the countryside you could see robust fields of corn, wheat, barley, oats, rice, rye. Where there were no seeds, there were orchards or vineyards, not to mention the never-ending fields of melons that made Oltenia, my region, a production benchmark from the North to the South and from the East to the West of the country. The future of Romanian agriculture lies in young farmers’ hands

Today, our national agriculture is still recovering from a devastating Communist experiment and a chaotic transition to an industrialised economy. It has lost part of its vigour. The challenges of making a profitable business out of farming have put most of our young people off.

A group of young Romanian farmers impressed me with their courage of taking their future - and our agriculture’s future - into their own hands Marian-Jean Marinescu

The 2nd EPP Group European Congress of Young Farmers was thus a breath of fresh air for me. A group of young Romanian farmers, to whom I was Congress Ambassador, impressed me with their courage of taking their future - and our agriculture’s future - into their own hands. To me, they were living proof that there are still people that can change Romania’s agriculture for the best. #Agricampania: promoting good ideas and sharing advice between farmers I felt that their inspiring stories had to be shared with others, so my team and I created a mini Facebook campaign to showcase their plans, to let everybody know that they are living proof that Romanian agriculture has a future.

Their profiles and stories spread rapidly on Facebook and the feedback we got was overwhelming: the campaign reached out to over 130,000 people

Their profiles and stories spread rapidly on Facebook and the feedback we got was overwhelming: the campaign reached out to over 130,000 people. Media enquiries and interviews followed, along with enquiries from other young Romanian farmers in search of insight and good advice. I invite you to read their stories here. I hope that you will find them inspiring.

As for me, I will keep in touch with them and, who knows, maybe we will win the big prize next year! Because not only does Romanian agriculture have a future… these young farmers are its future.

We believe in people. #believeinpeople @MarianMarinescu

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