What’s Wrong with Being a Farmer?
Georgia, a small country as it is with the tiny economy it has, looks like one of the wonders of the world for its ability to feed its people adequately, and thus survive. Well, it is not a huge secret to divulge that we regularly borrow money; we accept economic and financial assistance from stronger economies as any other developing country does; we bring in more products than we send out to international markets; in a word, we do some magic day, in day out, year in, year out just to survive. Yet there is, within this country, the potential to feed its population well, and on top of that, to trade with the rest of the world its surplus products and make money.
Oh, please do not confuse me with a serious professional economist – I am only an amateur well-wisher, nothing else! So, let me carry on with this little idea of mine: we have only to look around a little better and think well of what we have taken for granted. Georgia is a perfect land for farming, save the occasional raging of the elements, but farming is not popular here. We hate farming; our young men and women are prone, and are often compelled, to abandon the fertile beautiful farmlands where they were born and raised, to stick their desperate heads right into the poisonous industrial smog and look for happiness gropingly about on the heated asphalt of our wretched urban dwellings. And this is done just to make a living.
Why is this anomaly hurled on our poor heads? One of the reasons should be the paucity of farming skill and desire. We have forfeited our readiness to farm extensively though Georgia is one of the fittest countries for agriculture. But a human being has not only a stomach to fill but also a sense of beauty and romanticism in its desire to do something with keen interest, and dreams to stand by and work for that thing. My most educated guess would be that farming has lost its beauty and romanticism here, and nothing will bring it back except our endeavor to make it romantic and beautiful again, and lucrative, too. How to do this? We have to send our people back to the villages and make farmers the most privileged class in Georgia! Even urbanized rural migrants can’t always provide for their own prosperity in towns and cities because it takes a long time to get used to the new environment, to find a proper job and to realize oneself the way one needs, wishes and deserves. And to make people go back to their roots by doing this, not forcefully but voluntarily, is possible only if farming becomes attractive both as a source of income and a reason for feeling good morally. We have to make farming trendy and cool, and we can do this by organizing powerful PR campaigns among our youth in favor of farming as such.
In this country, the vector of professional happiness is directed on diplomats, business managers, financiers and lawyers. Agronomists, veterinarians and farmers are ignored as a rule: our young people think those professions are not cool enough for them. We need to nurse love and respect for farming to our posterity, educating them accordingly and sending them to rural areas to create farms which will produce food products in abundance; let there be more boys and girls in Georgia who want to major in agriculture; we should build industrial partnership between farming and tourism. We have no need to import so many agricultural products!
The other day, I read in one of the newspapers that the Minister of Agriculture of Georgia had made a statement about the necessity of approximating the level of rural and urban lifestyles. This was the dream of the “builders of communism” had, one which never came true. Maybe the future is for us to enjoy. And this can only happen if farming becomes a matter of pride and prestige. Of course, this won’t happen without financial investment and other substantial effort, but it is definitely worth it.
Maia Y. Mchedlidze