It's not just a pandemic issue. There Labor in Italian agriculture has been in short supply for a long time due to widespread errors and policies that pay little attention to the greater Italian exports.
Dealing with the phenomenon also means looking for different ways to get companies back on track and not missing important appointments such as those dictated by the European agri-food agenda.
In the countryside there is fighting like never before between need for recovery from the pandemic shock and higher quality production. Winning by being sustainable, clean and in line with laws and wages are the hallmarks of a turning point – as they often say – from farm to fork. The training program for social inclusion in agriculture "Cultum change" presented these days is credited as an advanced solution.
It was born from an idea of Reale Foundation with UNHCR aggregates, University of Tor Vergata, Senior Age of Wisdom, Italian Beekeepers Federation, Social Farms Network, Enapra training body. Reale Foundation of the Reale Group puts the propensity to aid in a sector weakened by a lack of manpower, climatic events and uncontrolled illegal hiring. The useful target for “Cultum change” to take off are farms and small producers who need specialization. In the project Confagricoltura has undertaken to select companies, not only on the basis of production criteria, but also on the basis of sustainability systems.
If a young immigrant enters a farm, his condition must be that of refugee or holder of international protection. His work will be recognized and his skills valued. In short, you try one step closer to the recognition of fundamental rights of the person and of the worker as such. It tries to close the door to the endless list of human exploitation and subjugation.
An odious and obscure condition which, unfortunately, lies behind many successes of the made in Italy agri-food sector and which is affected by lack of controls on the territory. Tricks of crafty entrepreneurs. "Access to these training courses in the agricultural sector - says Chiara Cardoletti, representative of UNHCR - is for refugees avaluable opportunity to improve and retrain one's skills, increasing the opportunities for dignified employment and away from the dynamics of illicit intermediation and exploitation".
The https://www.cultumchange.it/ platform makes targeted training courses available to unemployed refugees. Companies can document both availability and required job skills. The intersection between supply and demand should make recruitment work more fluid in the coming months. From the point of view of the Reale Foundation, Virginia Antonini explains that the sense of the social inclusion project goes towards "models of production and consumption capable of correcting the social and environmental imbalances that threaten our era". Work and manpower are essential for the agricultural enterprise. And if agriculture also assumes the role of social shock absorber for disadvantaged categories, the paths to follow can only be those of clarity and respect for the rules.
