If agriculture is to attract the younger generation, the creation and distribution of value must be reinvented.
Between her Bachelor's degree in biology, obtained at the University of Geneva, and her doctorate in Economics, obtained in 2021 in the Strategy, Globalisation and Society department of HEC Lausanne, Inès Burrus has studied numerous agricultural models. It all started with an internship in an agroecology and permaculture training centre in Northeast Brazil for a Master's degree in sustainable natural resource management. It was there that she saw the concrete links between agriculture, sustainable resource management and economic development. Back in Europe, she got her first job in sustainable agriculture at Nestlé. Her mission within the agri-food group consisted of elaborating rural development strategies aimed at securing the supply chains of cocoa, manioc and coffee to producers. In Côte d'Ivoire, then in Vietnam, she collected data in the field, analysed the needs of small producers and identified ways to meet them. She then undertook a doctorate, sponsored by three multinationals, with a view to exploring these issues in greater depth. This will take her back to South America, as she will be collecting data for her thesis in Brazil and Paraguay. Four questions to a researcher who has observed farmers on four continents.
My thesis deals with a concern shared by the three groups that sponsored my PhD: How to make agriculture attractive to young people in rural areas? These companies are indeed faced with the challenge of the rural exodus which impacts their supply of raw materials: young rural people are moving to the city where their dream is to have a stable income. However, the network of small producers is crucial for agri-food groups that need to secure their supply chain. I collected data in Brazil and Paraguay. My objective was to understand why young people are leaving rural areas and to propose solutions.
First, it was necessary to understand how young rural people choose their life trajectory. With this population, I therefore collected data on the mechanics of decision making and the identity tensions that drive changes in trajectories. From this, I built a typology of individual trajectories, within which we can schematically cite the main ones: the individual breaks with rurality because he rejects it or because he has found another trajectory of accomplishment; the individual remains in agriculture because he is satisfied or because he has succeeded in changing his living conditions (entrepreneurship, innovation, diversification.Finally, the individual remains in agriculture but is dissatisfied because there is an inconsistency between his personal aspirations and his reality, which generates frustration and also poses a problem of sustainability. We therefore need to find levers so that young rural people take over and live in accordance with their aspirations.
For agriculture to be able to satisfy the new generations in rural areas, it is necessary to improve living standards. This means acting on economic, social and environmental parameters: access to land and financing, bargaining power and commercial power relations... For the large agri-food groups, this can involve changing purchasing practices, for example by signing long-term contracts to give producers visibility; ensuring a decent income for producers by not focusing solely on world market prices but by taking production costs into account; this can also require rebalancing the distribution of added value, giving the true value to the final product by integrating environmental and social externalities. Let's take the example of climate risk: why should it be borne solely by the producer of raw materials? Especially in a context where climatic uncertainties are multiplying. If young people in rural areas are to become farmers, the producer must regain control of his economic destiny. In short, we need to transform business models that were developed in a different era from ours, which requires a radical change in the nature of the institutions.
My recommendation is to review the model for distributing added value throughout the supply chain. That being said, if we have to think in terms of a constant model, there are a few levers that can be used to regain a certain financial sustainability: agro-ecology, which contributes to economic resilience, direct access to the consumer to better value production and to apply transparency to the determination of prices and traceability, and solidarity between farmers, through mutual aid and knowledge sharing networks. Training has a crucial role to play in encouraging vocations and selecting profiles. It is also important to remain anchored in reality and avoid fashionable effects. This is why I advocate tools where, through immersion or apprenticeship formulas, young people are confronted with the reality of agriculture. Even schools have a role to play in reconnecting children with the living world. But, once again, for agriculture to become an attractive prospect for the younger generation and for this profession to be a source of pride, it must be possible to make a decent living from it. For this to happen, the creation and distribution of value must be reinvented.