From poverty to power - Oxfam-Québec

3 POVERTY AND WEALTH LIVING OFF THE LANDValley, as the evening sun lights up the plots of maize and the dusk isredolent with the smells of eucalyptus and herbs, 18-year-oldSegundino punctures the beauty of a tourist paradise: ‘We growmaize, potatoes, wheat, everything, but I want to finish school andcarry on studying. Farming is pure sacrifice. Here in the communityit’s just work and school. We play the odd game of football, but that’sabout it. I want to go to the city.’ 87Segundino’s words are echoed by young people in rural communitiesaround the world. Education, newspapers, radio, television, and theInternet, and consumerism more generally, have profoundly alteredthe way that rural people think about work, farming, and their – andmore particularly, their children’s – futures. Farming has become,often in little more than a decade,a low-status occupation to be avoided. 88Governments can slow the drain to overcrowded capitals by investingin provincial cities and revitalising local economies, but they are seldomable to stop it altogether. Where the productivity and welfare of smallfarmers can be increased through improved irrigation, credit,technology, and organisation, supporting agriculture is synonymouswith development.Where the land is exhausted or inhospitable, and productivityimprovements are unlikely, it may be better for governments and aiddonors to facilitate a dignified exit. The key is to give people the bestrange of positive choices: not obliging them to flee to the shanty townsin hunger and despair, but rather enabling them to make a positivedecision either to stay on the land, or to seek a better life in the city,because they are equipped with skills, capital, and the self-confidenceborn of power and voice, and can prosper in either environment.145