To start agricultural production you need to have available resources: land, machines, equipment, seeds .For one who doesn't have any starting point, like inheriting our parent's farm, to begin agricultural production can be very difficult.
Despite that, youth unemployment in rural as well as in urban areas is growing. Many young people are moving from villages to cities and those who stay cant start their own business in agriculture. This is a very big problem all over the world and especially in Serbia.
More than half of Serbian farmers, besides their agricultural production, usually are working somewhere else as well, so they often use their salary to start agricultural production or to maintain it. In the first few years, they need to invest in new equipment or to buy more cows or more plants to grow, so they can extend their production. When their production becomes the source of income, they then quit the first job.
Bojan Budjevac (village Banja, Central Serbia) works in a fabric near his town, at the same time studies for his college final exams and also takes care of his agricultural production. Last spring he planted a domestic variety of cherry on one hectare. With his salary he both land and cherry seedlings. Before the cherry starts to produce the first mature fruits in a few years he will continue to invest in treatments and production. He has professional help from agronomist and support from his family and neighbours.
Bojan isnt the only young agriculture enthusiast who works in the mornings at a firm or somewhere in the city, and later in the afternoon on the field. Problem is that still much of the young people cant get any job in rural areas and many see agriculture as a waste of time. This can explain why the percentage in villages all across the Europe and world in youth unemployment is high.
Even if they wanted to, it is quite difficult to start their own production, especially without any resource. Serbian Government will subsidize your production usually after you buy all you need for it, not before that. You cant use bank loans if you are unemployed and even if you write a project and apply for state organizations resources, you still need to have something to start with. Unfortunately, you cant always rely on your governments solutions for young farmers agricultural production, so you need to think quick and get to work fast.
Many of young people tend to find any job that can provide the money to invest in agricultural production. Sometimes even the job isnt enough, so they try to look somewhere else.
The source of every solution is good information
Internet often can't give us all the answers we want. In case of agriculture, connecting with agricultural movements, associations and organizations can provide us all useful information in agriculture, especially how to find resources to start our own production. By sharing information young farmers will get acquainted with sites or stores where to buy necessary equipment for less money but with good quality or where to find funding resources for production.
Source of every solution is good information, but lack of information is one of the biggest problems for young farmers. You have to decide what you want to do in agriculture whether is growing fruits, livestock breeding or organic agricultural production. With a good plan and written project, you can win foundations, organizations or funding programs grants for young farmers in any country in the world.
It is hard to start, but using all available resources and information, you can always start with small production and later make it grow with more knowledge and hard work because in agriculture you can make your way of life.
Picture credit: Julijana Kuzmic