The size of agricultural farms is growing across EU countries. Factors like the high cost of new machinery, shortage of skilled labour, and many small farms struggling with regulation and low profits are causing smaller farms to merge with larger, more industrially managed ones. While this does not necessarily mean less sustainability, it makes it harder for young people to take over family farms and reduces available land for new young farmers entering the sector. Currently, only 12% of the farm holdings in the EU are managed by farmers under the age of 40.
Additionally, the public image of the agricultural sector is particularly significant, as it heavily influences political choices affecting price compensation, environmental laws, building regulations, and land use plans. Parallelly, as the agricultural population decreases and agricultural technologies rapidly change, the public has become detached from modern farming methods. Public perceptions of agriculture are shaped more by mass media and advertising than by personal experience, which can often give an outdated image and discourage young people.
The challenge of attracting young people to the agricultural sector needs to address both financial issues and the sector’s public image. Therefore, this concept highlights potential actions to support these efforts to make the sector more appealing and accessible to the younger generation. A combination of financial support, low-threshold opportunities for active engagement, and improved communication can significantly increase the attractiveness of agriculture for young people and ensure long-term farm succession.
How to do it
Suggested actions
- Carry out courses and camps about farming, gardening and self-sufficiency. These can be implemented on different levels: allotment gardening, balcony gardening, etc.
- Implement information and image campaigns to make the agriculture sector more attractive, popularising farm work, and financing young farmers.
- Connect older farmers without direct successors with young, motivated farmers.
- Improving communication and transparency with initiatives like „Open Farm Days“.
- Promoting rental gardens.
Local adaptations
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KISMET Actions & Tools
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Related knowledge
Program Hofbörse (Hof sucht Bauer – farm seeks farmer)
„Program Hofbörse“ is a german program that connects older farmers without direct successors with young, motiva-ted farmers. This approach ensures that farms, which would otherwise be abandoned due to the lack of successors, can continue operating, contributing to the stability and sustainability of the agricultural landscape.
DKB AG
In Germany, this program provides financial support to new farmers. Young farmers can receive grants of up to 100,000 euros to finance and modernize their operations.
European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development
The EAFRD is part of the Rural Development Policy, which is the second pillar of the Common Agricultural Policy. It offers further financial assistance to support young farmers starting in the agricultural sector.
EWA Empowering Women in Agrifood
A project that offers training, mentoring, business coaching and networking opportunities for women entrepreneurs in the agrifood sector.
Satakunta syytä
A campaign promoting educational options of the food sector for new students.
IFOAM – International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements, Europe – meeting for young farmers
IFOAM, International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements, Europe organizes a meeting for young farmers every second year. In July 2024 this meeting took place in Bari, Italy. This is a meeting place for young farmers from all over Europe to exchange and create networks that are offered to 10 selected young farmers from each EU country.
YOUNG FARMERS
This EU-funded project is focused on generating new approaches to encourage greater youth participation in agricul-ture. Specifically, it aimed to devise a ’networked individualism‘ model, which emerged from the field of digital socio-logy, to analyze behavioral trends.
SURE farm
SURE-Farm focuses on analysing and evaluating the resilience and sustainability of farms and farming systems in the EU in order to improve it. Through one of its work packages (WP3), it aims to better understand farm demographic, including farm succession in Europe.
New Entrant netWork: Business models for Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Resilience in European agriculture
The NEWBIE network aims to promote and spread new business models for entering the field to a diverse range of new participants. This includes successors and complete newcomers in the agricultural sector.
