Towards the rural youth and their families remaining in a dignified countryside

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MADR), together with Corporación Colombiana de Investigación Agropecuaria (AGROSAVIA) and strategic allies in the territories, are executing since the end of 2022, a project to strengthen regional capacities through the improvement of training environments for Rural Educational Institution (REI) students.

Bogotá, Capital District. April 14, 2023. "Improvement of training environments in rural educational institutions in the countryside that facilitate generating opportunities for rural youth to remain in the countryside" is the name of the project financed by MADR and implemented by AGROSAVIA at the end of 2022, together with strategic allies at the territories. Its main objective is to contribute to generating opportunities for rural youth and their families to remain in the countryside.

Migration to the cities and the aging of the countryside is a phenomenon that has to be addressed today.

AGROSAVIA, from its work and its different Research Centers throughout the country, promotes scientific, technological, and innovation knowledge by improving training environments, capacity building, and the generation of the ability to promote the countryside. All this, in joint work with strategic allies in the regions and with the technological offers achieved as a result of the Corporation's research, development, and innovation according to the territorial particularities and the needs of producers.

This project is geared towards capacity generation and strengthening. As a strategy, it is accompanied by linking, transferring, and teaching-learning basic knowledge and recognition in the field processes, separately or in a simultaneous expression of the components of the agricultural and livestock systems.

Currently, the project has been socialized with 20 REIs; it has adapted the training environments of two Institutions; it has delivered three tools and supplies kits; it has designed six training workshops; it has developed five learning guides; and it has elaborated four management protocols in 20 municipalities of 17 of the country's departments.

According to Pablo Fernando Ramos, lead researcher at AGROSAVIA, "the articulation with the MADR begins from the basic formulation of the proposal, where personnel from the public resources' office of the Ministry begins with the selection of REIs that have the standard technical articulation and other selection criteria are applied. Then, AGROSAVIA, following the project's guidelines, initiates a recognition process of each REI's needs. Further, the project's emphasis per institution through concertation days is prioritized."

"We continue with the Rural Youth project incorporating lessons learned and contributing to national policies to strengthen rural opportunities. Until now, the Corporation has been present in the first version with three REIs in La Macarena, Meta; then, in other three REIs in three different departments; and now, incorporating lessons learned and improving some aspects with a presence in 20 REIs, from the south of the country in Nariño to the north in La Guajira, and from the east in Casanare to the west in Chocó," added Ramos.