Spain's Eco-Agriculture Rise
Women and Youth Drive Organic Farming in Spain to Combat Climate Change
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Women and young people are driving a quiet revolution in Spain's countryside. A national agroecology training program led by the Spanish Society for Organic Farming (**SEAE**) has just wrapped up after 16 months, training 385 professionals across 11 provinces — exceeding all its original targets, according to Diario de Mallorca.
The numbers tell a clear story: 43% of participants were women, and 27% were under 40. Together, these two groups are reshaping who farms in Spain — and how they farm it.
A 16-Month Program That Exceeded Every Target
The program, titled *"Estrategias de adaptación al cambio climático desde la producción ecológica y la agroecología"*, ran 12 technical sessions across 9 autonomous communities. It launched in early 2025 and concluded in June 2026, according to El Periódico de Aragón. Funding came from two sources: 57% from Spain's Ministry of Agriculture (MAPA) and 43% from the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (FEADER).
SEAE coordinator Helena Cifre said that "agroecological training is activating the exact profiles the rural environment needs." The program taught practical techniques like cover crops, traditional seed saving, solar-powered irrigation, and water-efficient farming methods for drought-prone zones, as reported by Diario de Ibiza.
Women Move From Invisible Helpers to Farm Owners
Women made up 43% of participants — a striking figure in a sector long dominated by men. Secretary of State Begoña García called women "decisive" in climate resilience, saying: "A field with women is a country with a future... protecting the climate is not an ideological option, but a democratic obligation," according to La Opinión de Murcia.
Among farmers under 35, 53% of young women choose organic standards, compared to 47.6% of young men, per a 2026 report by Ecovalia. Grassroots group Fademur warns that progress is still slow — shared farm ownership remains legally complicated, and women's work in agriculture is still undercounted in official data, as noted by El Correo Gallego.
Young Farmers See Organic Agriculture as an Economic Lifeline
Spain faces a triple crisis: climate change, an aging farming population, and rural depopulation — what Spaniards call "La España Vaciada" (the emptied Spain). Young people are twice as likely as older farmers to choose organic over conventional farming, according to Ecovalia's Brussels director Evelyne Alcázar, as reported by Información.
Alcázar also criticized a gap in EU data. She noted that recent European Commission reports on generational change in farming failed to mention that organic agriculture is the main "magnet" pulling young people back to the land. The program reached provinces like Zamora, Bizkaia, Valencia, and Huelva — regions hit hardest by rural exodus, according to La Opinión de Zamora.
Spain's Organic Sector Eyes the EU's 2030 Target
The EU's Farm to Fork Strategy wants 25% of farmland to be organic by 2030. Spain's Andalusia has already passed that mark — reaching 27.4% organic agricultural surface area in 2022/2023. But experts say spreading that success to other regions will be key to stabilizing Spain's national organic market, per Diario Córdoba.
Analysts note that the peer networks formed during training sessions matter as much as the technical skills learned. Strong local farmer networks are seen as a buffer against both climate shocks and economic instability. The next test will be whether these 385 newly trained professionals stay on the land — or follow the path of rural abandonment that Spain is trying to reverse, according to LNE.
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