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Address of the President of the Republic To the Scientific-Pragmatic Conference "Family Farm - the Source of Estonian Life Force" in Tartu, at the Assembly Hall of the Estonian Agricultural University, on March 8, 200208.03.2002
Dear Rector,
dear Professors and
representatives of Citizens' Unions,
ladies and gentlemen!
This conference erects problems that are of crucial importance not only for the rural population of Estonia, but all the people of Estonia. Is the traditional rural life doomed to extinction? How does the European Union affect this process?
There can be no simple, unambiguous answers to these questions. Yet this does by no means mean that we should not - together, and each of us separately - seek for the answers to these questions. We must do this at least because this is a way of specifying our national interests, goals, and possibilities.
Already half a century ago, the folklorist Oskar Loorits pointed out that "for a small nation, the struggle for existence is inevitably harder then for a big nation". It was his opinion that it was the vitality of the Estonian spirit that helped us to survive the times of great crises. Now we know that after those words of Loorits written in the middle of last century, our vitality has been tried several times. Have those events increased or diminished our vitality?
There is no unambiguous answer to that question either. On the one hand, we had the opportunity to restore our independent state, but one the other hand, we have had to pay for our freedom. And the rural population has had to pay a major part of the price. In the country, the changes in the life and working environment have been the most radical. Nearly one half of the working people living in the countryside have lost their traditional employment. In some areas, one fifth of the population is unemployed. The farmer growing crops for our bread has an income four times smaller than someone working in a nice bank-house.
The price we have had to pay can be considered high also when considering the health, the safety and the birth rate of our people. It is because of the losses in the above areas of life that we must admit today that the transition time should have been a milder one. At the same time - this statement does not change what has happened. It only remains to make our following decisions with more foresight and more consideration for the specific interests of the society.
Undoubtedly, one of the gravest decisions of the foreseeable future will concern the accession to the European Union. The impact of this decision on the rural population is most immediate. And the rural manufacturers have the highest expectations concerning the European Union. The Estonian spokesmen must not ignore these expectations, must not cause another disappointment to the country people.
It is also quite certain that life in the country will never be quite like it was before the loss of Estonia's sovereign statehood. Then, there were 140,000 farms in Estonia, and farming was almost the only imaginable way of life in the countryside. Today, both the word "farm" and farming as a form of enterprising have acquired a new content. Efficiency, investment capability and competitiveness are becoming the keywords also in this area of life. And it is proceeding from these criteria that the territory of a modern manufacturing farm amounts to half a thousand hectares and the number cattle to several hundreds.
The proportion of those engaged in agriculture has decreased year by year in Estonia, as well as in other countries; today, they constitute 5% of the population. Thus, most of the modern manufacturing is intensive and highly technological. This means that less and less of the country people earn their income by the cultivation of land and cattle breeding.
The grants issued in the European Union follow exactly the direction mentioned above - more and more of them are allocated to the support of country life and the creation of clean natural environment. This in turn creates an alternative for instance for small farms that are able to combine the preservation of natural cultured landscape to the production of uncontaminated food. This would provide income for the population of several regions of Estonia and also preserve rural inhabitation.
With this approach, I would also like to seek the answer to the main question of this conference - do family farms have a role in the modern society? Of course they do. But does this inevitably have to be the role of agricultural production? There are many other profitable manufacturing and service opportunities in the country, also for the family farms.
With its internal division of labour and its ability to cultivate diligence, family farms could be and indeed are an excellent life environment for several generations. This has made the farms the source of our national roots and vitality. Let us have the wisdom to draw our strength from them!
I wish many good and fruitful ideas to the Conference!
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