Farming Matters - Education for change

All too often, education in rural areas serves to disconnect and estrange rural people from their own culture and environment, and increases the gap between rural and urban settings. Yet education can be a powerful tool for developing skills, strengthening the value attached to farming, supporting young rural people in their search for identity and future opportunities, and contributing towards a more sustainable and just agriculture. Education needs to be better connected to rural realities and the enormous potential that family farming has in addressing the pressing challenges facing the world today. The initiatives highlighted in this issue, even if small in scale, are all building towards this.