Partnership with Farmers for Sustainable Agriculture

Partnership with Farmers for Sustainable Agriculture

Since achieving sustainable agriculture is very challenging and expensive, it requires a lot of collaboration between several parties. You can think of governments, non-profit organizations,private sectors and most importantly, farmers. Farmers have been working at and for their farms and lands. they have been inheriting them for generations, and they are planning to give them to their children when they get old. they grown up with this mentality and it will not be easy to change it. In order to get this mentality changed or at least persuade farmers to collaborate, a very specialized way of communication has to be followed. The foundation of this new communication approach is trust. Farmers do not trust governments anymore as they feel too vulnerable against governmental decisions that are taken without listening to the farmers themselves. Therefore the new approach should include building trust as well as raising awareness among farmers and explaining how the new agricultural approaches will benefit the farmers as well.
Farmers do not want to leave their area as it has a socio-cultural importance for them. Persuading them to sell their land in order to allow the government to implement the new approaches might be very difficult. Both parties have to be more flexible and open. Leasing these lands for example might be an appropriate solution for both parties.
Another long-term solution can be educating some of the farmers youth (as they might be more open) regarding food and water security and climate change. As soon as they realize the substantial danger occurring from wrong agricultural approaches, they will spread this among their families, as they are more trusted than governments.
However, I do not think that taking lands over from farmers is the only possible solution. I prefer following the quote that says: Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.
Why do not we invest in these human resources? Why do not know teach them how to use these new technologies? Why do not we educate them so that they can take care of their own property and benefit us and themselves at the meantime? The agricultural knowledge is already there for generations but implementing new practices will definitely require sufficient supervision.