There are almost 30 thousand agricultural businesses run by women and young people under 35 in Puglia, despite the uncertainty caused by conflicts and the critical international scenario, new green and innovative generations who have chosen to invest their future in the countryside where they bring innovation, sustainability , competitiveness and efficiency.
“Support is reserved for micro-enterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises that take over the management of an entire agricultural company that has been active for at least two years at the date of submission of the application and that present projects for the development or consolidation of the company – explains Coldiretti Puglia -. They must be administered and conducted by a young person aged between 18 and 41 (not completed on the date of submission of the application) or by a woman, in possession of the qualification of professional agricultural entrepreneur or direct farmer”.
There are more than 23 thousand farms run by women in Puglia who are revolutionizing the economy in an innovative sense on the basis of renewed female protagonism which must be supported with new incentive and rewarding measures. The ‘pink’ agricultural companies are giving a multifunctional and innovative face with ancient professions revisited in a modern key, in agriculture, forestry and fishing in Puglia, where the number of pink agritourisms is also growing (+ 3.7%), going from 286 to 305 in Puglia, demonstrating how women entrepreneurs have managed to make the most of the opportunities offered by multifunctionality in agriculture. Their presence in the countryside is revolutionizing work in the fields where they are capable of ranging from breeding to cultivation, from floriculture to agritourism, from product transformation to direct sales. But the real driving force of women in agriculture are social activities, from the educational farm to agri-kindergartens, but also important activities for the inclusion of less fortunate women, often victims of violence and abuse, in the world of work.
On the young entrepreneurs front, in Puglia 15.3% of the total farms are organic and 23% are employed in stables, with new green ideas to guarantee food and energy to Puglia against the crisis triggered by the war and the blockade of supplies of agricultural raw materials and Russian blackmail on gas and oil. Investing in young people means investing in the future and food sovereignty of the country in a situation where 49.7% of young company heads have a high school diploma and 19.4% have a degree according to a recent survey. The young agricultural businesses stand out for their size and above all for the leap in quality made in terms of digitalisation, innovation and professionalism and in fact have an average size of 18.3 hectares compared to the national average of 10.7 hectares, underlines Coldiretti.
12% of young businesses in the fields carry out related activities which are therefore at the forefront of the multifunctional agriculture model with important impacts on the environment and the community, as in the case of the production of renewable energy or social agriculture.
Coldiretti for young people and women launches a broad proposal for the consolidation of the sector through training, simplification, flexible tools for access to work, incentives to be able to operate quickly and promote investments in innovation with a real economic and social relaunch of the regional agriculture, because the emergencies of recent years have brought out the awareness that agriculture is linked not only to the protection of health and the environment, but also to the security of supplies for the population and to the defense of the food sovereignty of countries.
“The greater appeal of working in the countryside is also reflected in school choices, with the boom in enrollments of students in professional institutes in Agriculture, Rural Development, Enhancement of Local Products and Management of Forest and Mountain Resources to which the specialization also adds Agriculture, Agri-food and Agro-industry of technical institutes, up by 17%” – concludes Coldiretti Puglia.
