Hurray for Italy’s youth: Italian agriculture is steering towards green production and favoring entrepreneurs under 35. The process is already well advanced and will lead – according to a survey conducted by Coldiretti – to the creation of 20,000 new ‘young’ startups by 2020, on top of the current 50,000, which have already ‘outdistanced’ over-60-year-olds’ in terms of average turnover (+75%), number of employees (+50%) and innovation.
The rural development plans will likely boost turnover: youth-focused measures provide for up to €70,000 in non-refundable startup grants and investment allowances up to 60% of expenditure. Young people’s entrepreneurial initiative is expressed across the board, though agriculture ranks high on the list of favorite sectors.
Or rather, new agriculture does – one that is not limited to production but extends its scope to the processing, sale and enhancement not only of products but of territories. The Coldiretti survey reports that the top five sectors for new startups established by people under 40 over the first nine months of 2016 feature agriculture and livestock, ranking second behind trade with almost 7,600 new entries.
“Nearly one out of ten enterprises run by young people in Italy today is in the agricultural sector (8.4%),” – said Coldiretti president Roberto Moncalvo. “What’s new compared to the past is the number of new entries from other sectors or different family backgrounds, people who’ve chosen to invest in the land and turn it into a way of life.”
Also, the number of university graduates is rising (50%) and so is the number of those choosing to innovate (57%).
In short, Coldiretti has refuted the stereotype of Italian youth as “spoilt brats” [“bamboccioni,” as Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa controversially defined them in 2007, Tr.’s Note] and outlined a very different profile for this country’s new generations: ready and willing to take risks, meet challenges, start their own business ventures; and Maurizio Martina, Minister for Agriculture, has confirmed the government’s commitment to supporting and incentivating generational turnover; and pointed out that the 2017 Budget Law moves in that direction by introducing a three-year, 100% tax relief incentive for entrepreneurs under 40 who start their own business in 2017. New opportunities – Martina added – are also being generated by non-interest-bearing loans, backed by an agreement with the European Investment Bank.
Education is also taking an interest in agriculture: Stefania Giannini, Minister for Education, University and Research, has signed a protocol with Coldiretti for a school-work project.
“It’s not a way of pushing students to go to work: it’s a way of providing a basis for them to make informed choices that might take them towards forms of entrepreneurship like those currently at work in the Italian countryside,” Giannini remarked.
Source: Italy Europe 24
