Agricultural test spaces: new opportunities for the countryside

The countryside is getting older. This is one of the realities that we have been witnessing in recent times and the data speak for themselves: 40% of farm owners are over 65 and only 8.8% are under 41. With these figures on the table, it is expected that in the coming years 50% of workers will have retired. This is precisely one of the biggest challenges facing the countryside: the lack of generational renewal.

With the aim of being able to respond to this pressing problem, agricultural test spaces have emerged to offer the possibility of testing agricultural activity in real conditions to people without family roots in the agricultural world. With the idea of being able to help the test spaces to take shape and materialize, the Network of Agricultural Test Spaces (RETA) was born, offering comprehensive support to those who want to develop an agricultural, livestock or forestry project in a test environment that allows a progressive insertion in an unknown sector.

According to data extracted from a report carried out by RETA, they currently account for a third of the profiles that enter the agricultural profession and it is expected that their contribution to the generational renewal of the sector may be the majority in the near future. To carry out this insertion, the RETA programme accompanies the test spaces in the definition and implementation of legal coverage, physical support and professional support.

The legal coverage defines the framework of action and the labour and tax responsibilities of the entrepreneur, incorporates the ownership of the property and regulates the relationship between the agricultural test space and the entrepreneur. Finally, comprehensive support includes the process of support from a technical, business and personal point of view with specialised training and agronomic advice. With regard to the physical support, the agricultural test space provides the space in which the agricultural, livestock or forestry activity will take place and includes the land, facilities, equipment, machinery and everything necessary to carry out the activity test. In addition, it defines the purpose of each space and requires an initial diagnosis to ensure the minimum requirements of the property.

Professional support includes training, training and implementation of the business plan, while in the last stages work is done on access to land, development of the company, support in the search and establishment of marketing channels and the relationship with other agents in the territory. The objective of the activity test is to be able to carry out the agricultural activity in conditions that are as real as possible on the part of the entrepreneur so that he or she can decide to definitively incorporate, adjust or abandon the activity.

In this sense, agricultural test spaces become a novel tool to promote generational renewal in the agricultural sector and generate a dynamic fabric equipped with resources to face future challenges. These spaces will also be able to respond to the demographic challenge and the local dynamization of the rural world.

A great support network

The RETA emerged as an Operational Group in 2018 with the support of European funds managed by the Ministry of Agriculture. Since then, it has managed to position itself as a support network for the entities promoting agricultural test spaces. From the Daniel and Nina Carasso Foundation we began to provide accompaniment in 2020 with financial support and accompaniment that has allowed the development of the network until its constitution as an Association in October 2022.

Since 2023, the Foundation has 9 accompaniments underway for these projects. Although the current testing spaces are concentrated in Catalonia and the Basque Country, new initiatives are progressively emerging in other parts of the country and the aim is for there to be a network throughout the national territory.

Six projects selected in the new call

The objective of both the RETA and the Daniel and Nina Carasso Foundation is to find enough spaces in each region that can help and facilitate the incorporation of those who want to dedicate themselves to the countryside without the need to have to go far from their residence. With this in mind, the Foundation is promoting a new call for projects in collaboration with the RETA to support the processes of creation and consolidation of agricultural test spaces. In this call we have received a total of 21 applications, of which six have been selected, which will receive funding for a period of time of one to three years.

This opportunity also responds to the shared interest in promoting the incorporation of new agents in the agricultural sector through these. We share the vision of committing to sustainable food through social innovation to test new production models that can respond to the multiple current challenges related to the climate emergency and the dynamics of depopulation in rural areas; as well as to accompany people who choose agriculture and/or livestock as a profession.

Aware of the importance of these accompaniment processes, the Foundation seeks to create synergies with other programmes such as Terralimenta or Sustentta so that they integrate the test spaces thanks to their actions. We believe that in this way it will contribute to offering more options throughout the territory to take the definitive step towards the agricultural world.

Led by new generations with a special environmental sensitivity, agricultural test spaces become a way to launch new models of entrepreneurship with a perspective of integral sustainability. In this way, this generational change in the countryside can respond to the demand for an agriculture that has the capacity to sustain rural territories, to produce food, to generate attractive and decent employment and respectful working conditions and to adapt to and mitigate the effects of climate change. In short, at the Daniel and Nina Carasso Foundation we believe that they can be a key element in the transition to sustainable food systems.