From Agricultural Production to Entrepreneurial Farming

Several years ago I travelled to Italy, my country of birth , to visit a region called Emilia-Romagna. I was there with a delegation of Canadian Government and Industry representatives wishing to take a look at a region which was attracting the attention of economists all over the World for its phenomenal economic growth.
In Emilia-Romagna, a region of 4 million people, there was one business for every 11 (eleven) people. On top of that, there were 7,900 cooperatives of which 2,400 operated in the rural sector.
Farmers market their produce together, process it in their own cooperative processing plants and finally own cooperative supermarket chains which operate both in Italy and throughout Europe. It seems that in Emilia- Romagna, farmers maintain control of their crops all the way from the fields to the market.
My visit there contrasted with what I experienced at a public meeting in a small country town in Western Australia. Prices had been depressed for years and the anger of farmers in that wheat-producing region had reached boiling point; guest speakers travelling there from the city were confronted by the sight of effigies of politicians being hung and burnt outside the Town Hall.
During the public meeting I made the remark that farmers should learn to add value to their products, but my comments were shouted down and I wasn’t able to explain what I meant. I remember one of the farmers becoming very agitated and saying: “The next bastard who comes from the city and tells me to add value to my crop I will shoot!”
I could not help but reflect on what makes the difference between farmers in Emilia-Romagna and farmers in Western Australia? Do they truly differ that much? Could it be that farmers in Emilia-Romagna started suffering earlier than those in Australia and have had the time to get over the anger to concentrate on survival?
History seems to confirm the latter hypothesis. Farming in Emilia-Romagna in the 1850s – 60s went through a catastrophic phase with so many rural people displaced that rural mutual aid societies were created at the grass roots to provide for widows and starving children. Out of that, and a century later, a rural sector has emerged which has put leadership and management talent at the service of both farmers and commerce. It has created a rural economy which is not only wealthy, it promotes, protects and represents the interests of those who work the land and produce the crops.
On the other hand, the farmers in Australia had it so good that they started to be concerned about prices only in the 1970’s and 80’s. Government-run Marketing Boards had lulled them into believing that the world would forever need their bulk wheat and greasy wool. Farmers became price takers...until price no longer covered costs!
The anger, the soul searching, is therefore recent and the solutions seem too hard and unpalatable. It took me some time. But I finally understood why that Western Australian farmer was so angry at my suggestion to learn to add value to his crop; in his eyes I was both arrogant and insensitive to rural needs and aspirations.
What he implied is that farmers have a dignity, a culture that we have to understand and respect. Many of them have deliberately chosen farming precisely because they don’t want to get mixed up in commerce, in marketing, in dealing with merchants and brokers. They simply want to farm beautifully and to provide an abundant harvest for their family, their country and the World.
They have earned respect for that, and should not be dismissed as non-value adders!
Yet prices are low, costs are high and farmers go to the wall every day while food corporations prosper and consumers scream for better and healthier food.
What can we do to help farmers?
Is there a way to transform production farming into entrepreneurial farming without offending and alienating the very farmers who need business advice so badly?
The solution, I believe, lies in only working with the farmers who ask for help and stop preaching to them.
And when they ask for help let them do what they love to do - but make sure that they find someone to work with in their business who loves to do the things that they hate.