SARA RODRIGUES & RODRIGO B. CAMACHOWarm Earth

IN YOUR OPINION, HAS THE PORTUGUESE AGRICULTURE LOST, OR WON?

I think that these questions cannot be put in such simplistic terms.

The Portuguese agroindustrial sector was practically an inexistent sector, especially in comparison with Europe. When I arrived in Portugal, I felt the shock of that backwardness; a backwardness that was technological, economic, social, cultural. Before joining the EU, in 1986, we didn’t have any proper structures for the slaughter of cattle. We didn’t have what we call an ‘agri-food industry’. Extremely outdated methods of production with low productivity levels. We are coming to a time, in which we will be forced or bound to alter many of our traditional habits and behaviours in agriculture. Most Portuguese farmers maintain social representations, which lead them to remain attached to the earth in ways that are, sometimes, not very rational.

May we invest, may we modernise, and that this be done quickly. We want a more modern and developed agriculture, with better infrastructures. May the Portuguese agriculture have success! In terms of equipment, in terms of machinery, in terms of irrigation, in terms of agricultural infrastructures. To be installed, furthermore, modern vineyards and orchards. May all that is modern come onto us! To increase the modernisation rates of agricultural holdings through the acquisition of tractors and other mechanical equipment. Technologies, the most diverse, which can be modernised. Always, and only, in terms of modernisation. Be it in the field of production structures, in the field of technologies, in the field of infrastructures.

Agricultural holdings grew 300%, agribusiness 600%! We have a strong, healthy and competitive industrial sector. Despite everything, and all strangulations, we are competitive! There is no reason to accept that they cannot be competitive! We have a perfectly equipped industry, from a technological standpoint, to compete with our European counterparts. We have the country covered with slaughter structures; with enough slaughterhouses to support the regular outflow of our production.

Sophisticated technologies, that only a limited number of companies have access to.

What technical progress will never solve, and farmers cannot surpass is the level of inequality in the economic and institutional conditions they are subject to. [Damage in the will and morale of many farmers]. We are still far from catching up with the expansion, technical progress and organisational levels seen in other European countries. We allowed ourselves to fall behind in relation to our EU partners and to the so called ‘New World Producers’. Nowadays, in Europe, the food distribution sector is condensed into 4 or 5 multinational chains alone. How is Portugal, as a small country, with all its fragilities, to survive in such an aggressive commercial sector? The Portuguese agriculture does not hold the necessary conditions to be competitive, so it is therefore not worth continuing to invest in its modernisation.

Europe produced an excess of thirty-three million tons of meat, many hundred thousand tons of powdered

milk, amongst many other food products. Portugal is amongst the countries where wine consumption is the highest. In the last decade we witnessed, in Portugal, a continuous increase in the consumption of milk, a consumption level already comparable to that of other European countries. The EU decided to lower prices for cereal, oilseeds, meat and milk: “We’ll control the surplus through a reduction in prices and leave the market to the rest...” From the moment we joined the EEC, our foreign trade balance has progressed negatively. We import mainly bananas, apples, peaches, oranges, but also potatoes, onions, tomatoes, carrots. The integration was made in conditions such, that in fact, today, the Portuguese food market is completely overrun by foreign products. Portugal has always produced cereal! Today, regardless of annual oscillations, it can be said that, internally, we rarely produce more than 40% of the cereals we consume. Portugal has pursued, without success, the myth of self-sufficiency in this sector.

Many small producers, those who weren’t able to follow this progression, felt bound, in recent years, to put an end to their activity. The great opportunities are, without a doubt, more connected to services than to production. Farmer numbers have dropped significantly, which is normal in a development process. The productivity of agricultural labour has increased sharply. Unfortunately, many farmers are also poorer and more insecure than they were ten years ago. The rural community will be affected by all this, it’s not really just the farmer. The farmer’s activity is essential to keep everyone going. There is a whole community that lives only thanks to the farmer’s practice.

The ‘Earth Market’ is a market that is just not working in Portugal, precisely because of connections to the earth, which are not exclusively economic in nature. Today, we must start producing for a market that is European, that is international, and the market is a global market and, as such, Portugal has to be in that market just like any other. We run the risk of having a beautiful product and yet not knowing how to sell it, and so, companies, sooner or later, are forced to shutdown. Today, it’s increasingly important to know the market; to have good relationships with that market; to know which conditions that market demands; to produce towards that very market; to have good outlets and, currently, I can assure you that on all shelves of the biggest supermarkets in England one can find Pêra Rocha!

Unfortunately, for the state of our agriculture, the regions where the rain is more abundant and the ocean moderates the climate, there is a shortage of land and a surplus of folks and mountains. Production units of insufficient dimensions. Where the water is rare and the climate excessively warm, there is a surplus of land and a shortage of folks. The underdevelopment and backwardness of most rural areas, the contrast between the small agricultural holdings, turned towards private consumption, and the big agricultural enterprises, turned towards the market. Well then, it is through the creation of market knowhow, as well, that we may contribute to the regularisation of agricultural holding dimensions. Nowadays, we have a lot less agricultural holdings than we had in 1985-86 which is, one can say, quite positive.

Many of you out there listening, will ask, logically; “if that is the case, then why don’t farmers do something else?” One of the most important factors in the development of Portuguese agriculture is the preparation of a new type of farmer. It is fundamental that specialised training is given - basic literacy, in first place - that education and professional training is provided. We have to train young people in agriculture according to this new pattern. Leave your job and try to become a farmer. When that time comes, you’ll be able to attest whether or not it is possible to live without subsidies.

Most farmers lived on knowledge made from personal experience; they learned by craft with their ancestors. People were used to live with drought but, these days, they no longer recognise that which was passed on by their parents and grandparents.

This essay was entirely composed of transcriptions taken from interviews, debates and reports from the television show “Earth and Men”.

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