Half of all kids raised on a farm want to take over the business from their parents, according to a national study.
In the research that was to be released
May 7, the National Farmers Union found the desire to farm was strongest among youth involved in livestock, except dairy, and those who are given a role in farm management.
However, youths also see that unless they have off-farm income, they probably can’t afford to farm.
Karen Pedersen, women’s president of the NFU, said in a May 5 interview that the study was both optimistic and pessimistic about farming.
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“It didn’t surprise me that they want to, but it’s also a major concern that they don’t see farming as viable.”
She pointed to the study’s financial data that showed 63 percent of all farms reporting had net income under $30,000 a year and 32 percent had income under $10,000. Half of all farms required at least one person to work at an off-farm job to keep the business afloat.
However, Pedersen was happy with the fact that women and youth’s work in contributing to the farm is being more recognized and that gender roles are blurring. She said that since the first such study done in 1982, women and men have divided up the tasks more evenly so that women are doing more field work and animal care in addition to household work and bookkeeping. Men have picked up more of the household and child care, although not to the same extent of change seen by women’s new tasks.
Pedersen said the power balance shift is equalling between men and women. That is due to a combination of factors – the financial squeeze, society’s expectation that women will take on different roles and the fact that the survey had more younger women.
Pedersen said the survey’s findings will hopefully bridge the urban lack of understanding of farm realities and point out that government policy should be addressing, among other things, how to support youth to farm.
In a section about the future of agriculture, only 20 percent reported they were “quite optimistic.” The largest number of respondents, 42 percent, anticipate major changes in agriculture and 38 percent of those surveyed were “very pessimistic” about their sector’s future.
“There is significant concern voiced by many of our respondents that corporate farms will become the norm and the family farm will disappear,” the study says.
“Many feel there will be two types of farms, very large farms, and small niche and lifestyle farms, which will be supported by farm family members working off the farm.”
The study of Canadian farm family work conducted by the NFU and the Centre for Rural Studies and Enrichment at Muenster, Sask., was done over 15 months in 2001-02. It provides more detail than the last farm family work survey also done by the NFU in 1982. The most recent study examined the type and amount of work done by 600 farm family members and included farm work, family work, non-farm paid employment and community work. The 600 were interviewed four times and filled in time diaries. The 200 men, 200 women and 200 youths were drawn from all provinces and represented the major type of agriculture found in each region.
“Farm women, youth and men all play a necessary role in the survival of Canada’s family farms,” Pedersen said.
“Farm family members have a strong commitment to their farms’ success. As a result, every family member contributes what they can, through some combination of farm work, household work and non-farm paid employment which is increasingly needed to subsidize farm production.”
Diane Martz, director of the Centre for Rural Studies and Enrichment, said the work of farm youth has never been assessed in any serious way in Canada.
“We expected to find that youth were helping a lot, but we were startled by the essential role that many young people play in maintaining the farm and the household while their parents generate cash income elsewhere,” Martz said in a News release
news.
The researcher said Statistics Canada considers the numbers as valid for comparing to the general farm population.
