There is a growing number of under 30 living in Trentino investing all their enthusiasm in the renovation of the apple farming business. In the last 5 years, they have more than doubled. They all focus on quality with great courage and mental opening. This is the story of Marco, who could have become a surveyor and chose apples, instead.
Watch the videointerview
«Becoming a farmer is not my B plan »: these are the words of Marco, 30 years old, one of the 450 inhabitants of Dambel (mid-Non Valley), and perfectly summarize the trend that sees many young people passionately rediscovering apple farming. «The courses held by Mach training and educational centre in San Michele are always full. This is the sign that many young people are getting ready to take the place of those who are retiring. It’s a nice return to farms and farming, after so many years where youth longed to get away and change air, finding their paths far from their families and from their apple trees».
Marco is the living example of how apple farming can be a passion, a choice that can’t be given for granted, nor be forced. «I have a degree in surveying. When I enrolled in High School I didn’t imagine that I would have followed my father’s steps. In the 80’s my father cultivated his apple orchards, he had inherited from his father. But on my last year I realized that those apples where the future I wished for myself and my father was the partner I wanted to work with».
«You grow up thanks to the choices you make»: this, for Marco is the positive side of his job: «Every decision we take gives its fruits. Something might always go wrong in agriculture, but when you win the odds, you are overwhelmed by happiness. And when you lose them, you’ve gained experience for the next time». Marco speaks in plural, because he has the luck of sharing with his father any choice they take for their farm. «The 600 hour course I took at Mach taught me the theory, but it was my father who passed me on his experience, but always with an eye on the future. He’s open and never “plays safe” and likes to seize with me (after long discussions, obviously) any new challenge». Like planting a new variety of apples, besides his beloved Golden apples. «It’s an act of faith towards Melinda’s marketing indications that always highlight new consumer trends. Evelina, for instance has been a real winning choice. A variety that found in our territory its ideal location
We know that the work is hard, that we always have to hope in a good pricing for the apples, that we must prevent weather disasters and pests (with the help of the technicians at San Michele). We also know that innovation, from anti-hail nets to picking vehicles, has its costs. «But even though we have our ideas, we are people that like to reason and never stand still. I think that seeing 20 year olds getting up at 5 o’clock in the morning to go to work in apple-farms, driven by passion, is a great sign».
