The “mixed professionals of the primary sector” is an experimental program launched in 2022 by the regional government of Gipuzkoa (Basque Country), the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa, that seeks to strengthen the first sector and promote generational renewal.

The departments of Agriculture and Territorial Balance and Forests and Natural Environment of the Provincial Council launched the project to promote the pluriactivity of farmers with the aim to respond to the challenge of the reduction in the agricultural activity in the territory and the implications that it has for the agri-food ecosystem, climate change, territorial balance and the cultural identity of the territory. It specifically responds to a specific reality of the region, that industry-city and the farms are very close. Thus, and as part of a territorial strategy for the development of agriculture and the protection of the environment in Gipuzkoa, and within the framework of a macro initiative of democratic innovation and collaborative governance of the Provincial Council, the project aims to explore a new policy to provide people interested in the primary sector with the possibility of combining their farmhouse activity with their work in the private sector or public administration.

In 2022, a process was developed to mature the idea and analyse its feasibility. In 2023, the process is focusing on co-designing an experimental financing program that makes it possible to make work in another place compatible with work in the farmhouse, offering a reduced or flexible working day. In 2024, a 5-year experimentation phase will begin with said pilot program. The objective is to experiment with this initiative and, if successful, integrate it in 2027-2028 within the framework and financing of the plans that are integrated into the framework of the European Common Agricultural Policy.

In this process, led by the Departments of Agriculture and Territorial Balance and Forests and Natural Environment of the Council, several actors have participated and will participate; farmers and their representatives, businesses and business associations, different areas of the regional government that are relevant for the definition and development of the experimental policy, consulting companies from different fields (legal, tax, process) and university researchers.