The progressive reduction in the number of farmers and their gradual aging make generational succession in the agricultural sector one of the greatest challenges for Galician society. The rural world is the primary stage of this process which, once silent, no longer hides its harshness in hundreds of parishes across the country. The effects are systemic: it threatens food sovereignty, dismantles the socio-economic fabric of many rural areas, alters the conservation of natural resources, landscape, and biodiversity, and compromises territorial management in different parts of our geography.
The agricultural land in Galicia managed by people of retirement age represents one quarter of the total, which, given the absence of generational replacement, is at high risk of being lost. At the same time, people over 55 manage 50% of the agricultural land. Meanwhile, those under 40 manage only 15% of the total area.
The Land Lab develops action-research aimed at improving collaborative territorial planning, contributing to a systemic territorial transition that is fair and truly sustainable. In this context, promoting generational succession in agriculture, based on agroecology, is recognized as a key strategy and a lever for long-term sustainability and conscious repopulation—critical for future solid and healthy food systems, as well as for a resilient country.
With this awareness, the group has been integrating the issue of agrarian generational succession into its work framework over the past years. In this sense, it promoted the
TERRACTIVA project, which produced various materials and tools to support new incorporations into agroecology.
Recently, the group contributed to the preparation of
the Galician Economic Forum Report: Generational Succession in the Galician Agricultural Sector; Challenges and Opportunities. The report provides an overview of the situation and demographic evolution of the sector, reflects on the most influential factors, and identifies possible windows of opportunity.
Likewise, LaboraTe also contributed to the project
Gender, Sustainability and Rural Knowledge (GESUSA) of the Histagra group through the development of a series of interviews with women recently incorporated into agroecology. The main results, which show how the gender perspective continues to be a handicap not only sectorally but also structurally, were presented at the conference
Trades and Food Production in Women’s Hands. Memory and Initiatives in Times of Crisis, held at EPSE in Lugo on October 28.
Together with other stakeholders, the group is conceiving the concept of territorial ecosystems to support generational succession and is prototyping it through various activities. Alongside five Local Action Groups, we are participating in the
Cooperation Project Nó Rural–Territorial Pacts for Agrarian Succession, which aims to develop and implement an agricultural succession strategy adapted to the reality of each territory, seeking alliances and commitments among stakeholders and institutions both inside and outside the territory, as well as initiating its application using currently available tools.
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