The Working Paper No. 295 entitled “Between Wanting to Do and Being Able to Do: Tensions of Indigenous Rural Youth regarding Agroecology”.The study, carried out in Sierra Norte Puebla (Mexico), Alta Verapaz (Guatemala) and Torotoro (Bolivia), presents the challenges that the new generations identify in implementing agroecological practices in their territories. The study, conducted in the Sierra Norte de Puebla (Mexico), Alta Verapaz (Guatemala) and Torotoro (Bolivia), identifies four critical tensions that hinder the transition to sustainable and inclusive food systems.

Tension 1: Between healthy and ecological agriculture and the widespread use of agrochemicals.
Young people value chemical-free production for its environmental and human health benefits. However, in their communities, the use of agrochemicals predominates to ensure yields and reduce labor, despite their economic costs and soil depletion.

“Farmers use agrochemicals because it makes it easier for them, because they have the mentality of using agrochemicals on their land and not trying to use organic products. Maybe they think it doesn’t work.”
(Young woman, Sierra Norte de Puebla, Mexico).

Tension 2. Wanting to learn new techniques and not being able to implement them.
There is a strong interest in learning agroecological techniques (traditional and innovative), but young people lack access to land and autonomy to apply them. Many depend on family land where decisions are made by older generations.

“The other thing, because of the land the young people don’t have, right? Sometimes their parents sell them and the young people are left without land. So, there is nowhere to go to practice, nowhere to plant.” (Young man, Alta Verapaz, Guatemala)

Tension 3: Valuing traditional food and eating packaged food.
Young people rescue traditional foods for their nutritional and cultural value, but face generational changes in diets, with an increase in the consumption of packaged food. This is aggravated by water scarcity and labor migration.

“… the generations no longer want to eat what they used to, now they only eat sausages, which is what hurts you the most and some people have developed stomach cancer because of all that.”
(Young woman, Sierra Norte de Puebla, Mexico).

Tension 4: Benefits of agroecology at the family level and disenchantment with traditional peasant and indigenous life.
Although they recognize the benefits of agroecology for self-consumption and the family economy, some doubt its viability on a large scale. In addition, they believe that their peers perceive agriculture as a “step backward” in the face of harsh living conditions and off-farm labor aspirations.

“(The young people) think that if they are going back to agriculture it is as if they are going backwards and not advancing, and that is why they want to leave here from the community and want to go to the city.”
(Young man, Torotoro, Bolivia).

The study was based on qualitative methodologies such as photovoice (images and narratives) and semi-structured interviews with 22 indigenous youth. participants in leadership workshops. All of them maintain strong territorial roots and interest in agriculture, but face realities marked by poverty, youth migration and the effects of climate change.

The text highlights the need for policies that address access to land, inclusion of youth and innovative approaches to make agroecology viable for younger generations.

The study was conducted within the framework of the Networks for Agri-Food Transformation projectimplemented by Rimisp – Centro Latinoamericano para el Desarrollo Rural together with local partners from CESDER-PRODES in Mexico, APROBA-SANK in Guatemala and PROSUCO in Bolivia, and was made possible thanks to funding from the International Development Research Center (IDRC) of Canada.

The working document is available here: Between wanting to do and being able to do. Tensions of indigenous rural youth regarding agroecology.