Why Is Argentina Trying To Import Farmers

[jeff1234]

Can someone explain to me why Argentina needs to import farmers from India?
Aren't there Argentinians that would like to pursue good agricultural opportunities?


http://www.bignewsne...9ed072d737073b4



Argentina invites Indian farmers to purchase land

Big News Network (IANS)Monday 5th November, 2012

Argentina has invited farmers from India to purchase land there and cultivate it.
Argentinian Ambassador Ernesto C. Alvarez, who met Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda in New Delhi Monday, suggested that India and Argentina could be partners in farming.
"Farmers from India could purchase land in the La Pampa area of Argentina, which is quite economical. They could cultivate it and bring back the produce. The Government of Argentina will help in the matter of irrigation, energy, credit and it would also be tax free," Alvarez told Hooda at the meeting, a spokesman of the Haryana government said here Monday.
"Farmers for this purpose can form a cooperative unit. They can visit Argentina and see the land," the ambassador said.
He invited Hooda to come and see the land himself. Hooda said he will come with some farmers.
Alvarez also mentioned about the silos being manufactured in Argentina, which can be set up anywhere for the purpose of storing food grains.

 

[ElQueso]

Maybe they are trying to break some of the power of the agricultural families?

 

[Jaredberryman]

Actually, I know the answer to this. Once I taught English to a the president of ENARSA, which is the government owned energy company here in Argentina. He told me that Argentina produces enough food for 300 million people, but could produce much, much more. The problem is that no one in Argentina wants to be a farmer by vocation. This is such a problem that farmers have serious problems finding laborers to help them pick crops and often times during the harvest season, they end up hiring Chileans for short-term periods just to help them get their crops in. Everything is focused in the major urban cities, and no one wants to go become a farmer, yet farming is a HUGE business in Argentina. Argentina could basically produce food for most of the world if they put their minds to it. I wouldn't be surprised if the government tries to promote more farming by bringing in foreigners that interested in investing and working in that arena. It's not a bad idea. Many people in Argentina inherited large tracts of land from their Italian ancestors, but they sold it or neglected it and never developed it. Since industry in Argentina sucks, at least they are making an effort to improve something else.

 

[Davidglen77]

Production of anything in Argentina is a freak show to say the least. One of my neighbors is from San Juan. Her family owns an olive plantation in San Juan that produces high quality olive oil and other olive products. It's been in her family since the 1930s. She told me that out of the thousands of kilos of olives harvested each year, more than half get thrown away because some part of their pressing equipment usually breaks down at some point during the process. Since the presses are all imported machinery (no industrial quality high volume presses made here) it takes months to get replacement parts and the crop rots and gets infested with bugs. Then the olive oil sits in tanks to be bottled and they can't get enough containers shipped so at least half the olive oil gets drained into the river (several thousand liters per year) as it can't be bottled after it sits for more than a certain time. She said it has been like this since about the year 2001. Each year they produce less, but their costs increase, about 25%. From a high point of about 50 employees in the 1950s they now have a total of 5 left and as they retire, they are not being replaced.

 

[Rich One]

Well , it's a good deal for the middlemen in the sale process...!!

Like importing versus producing energy....??

 

[AngelinBA]

Actually, I know the answer to this. Once I taught English to a the president of ENARSA, which is the government owned energy company here in Argentina. He told me that Argentina produces enough food for 300 million people, but could produce much, much more. The problem is that no one in Argentina wants to be a farmer by vocation. This is such a problem that farmers have serious problems finding laborers to help them pick crops and often times during the harvest season, they end up hiring Chileans for short-term periods just to help them get their crops in. Everything is focused in the major urban cities, and no one wants to go become a farmer, yet farming is a HUGE business in Argentina. Argentina could basically produce food for most of the world if they put their minds to it. I wouldn't be surprised if the government tries to promote more farming by bringing in foreigners that interested in investing and working in that arena. It's not a bad idea. Many people in Argentina inherited large tracts of land from their Italian ancestors, but they sold it or neglected it and never developed it. Since industry in Argentina sucks, at least they are making an effort to improve something else.

I find this so interesting, because my job is issuing work visas for Argentines heading to New Zealand. Most of my business is sending young farmers to New Zealand to work as farm managers / farm workers - on dairy farms mostly. I wonder why they don't get jobs here?

 

[Ceviche]

I find this so interesting, because my job is issuing work visas for Argentines heading to New Zealand. Most of my business is sending young farmers to New Zealand to work as farm managers / farm workers - on dairy farms mostly. I wonder why they don't get jobs here?

The Indian farmers are getting invited to get cheap land and cultivate it from nothing. This requires hard work. Indian farmers are well known for being amongst the most hard working farmers in the world.Thousands of Indian farmers commit suicide every year because of lack of suport from their government, lack of rainfall at the right time and because they lose land in debt to rich people.

On other hand, Argentine farmers are lazy and perhaps not really looking to cultivate land from nothing but looking for a cushy job in a first world country.

Not only Argentina, but even Uruguayan and Paraguayan governments are literally kneeling down in front of Indian farmers to come and make home in their country and cultivate their land.

If I had teenage children today, i would tell them to take a degree in agriculture/farming cos I am absolutely convinced that if done right right, Agriculture/ farming business has the best potential in the future years to convert paupers in to millionaires.

 

[RichardP]

I find this so interesting, because my job is issuing work visas for Argentines heading to New Zealand. Most of my business is sending young farmers to New Zealand to work as farm managers / farm workers - on dairy farms mostly. I wonder why they don't get jobs here?

Interesting. A couple of my wife's relatives from BA went to NZ to work. They were mainly in the tourist industry though.

 

[Ceviche]

Interesting. A couple of my wife's relatives from BA went to NZ to work. They were mainly in the tourist industry though.

New Zealand and Argentina have "extremely" friendly relations. New Zealand welcomes Argentines with open arms. Many of my local female friends are studying to become doctors and nurses. Most of them aspire to got to US for higher studies but New Zealand is the guaranteed back-up plan for all of them.

 

[Amargo]

I believe Argentine farmers are very professional and hard working people. Guess most of the people criticising them have not been to the campo very frequently. Argentine farms make good use of the technological advances at their disposition and are quite highly regarded by other farming Nations.
The campo is THE backbone of the Argentine economy.

The problem I frequently see is on the commercial side. Farmers are too far away from the markets and are paid too little by the middlemen, who are those earning LOTS of money. Bigger farms can compensate low prices paid to them through the volume they produce, but smaller farms are just f****d up. My inlaws have some yerba mate plantation in Misiones. They abandoned the 30 hectares there -slowly becoming jungle again- as they are being paid so little that it is not worth to bother harvesting it. Remember that harvesting yerba mate is very labour-intensive. Now, think of how many times per day you hear Argentines complaining of the yerba mate price! Something similar might be occurrying with the olive plantation mentioned above (olive harvest can be mechanised IF trees are planted accordingly, I believe this is not the case with that olive grove in San Juan).

Because of the size of the necessary farmed surface and the high level of mechanisation required to be profitable...I don't really see what is the idea behind bringing Indian farmers to La Pampa! Not much labour is required this days on the campo, it has not to do with being lazy.