Extolled and exalted, with low unemployment figures and relentless economic growth – a resounding reminder of the gallant resilience of a small Island nation – Malta continues to metamorphose and to seize the moment of favourable predictions and trends.

Many a sector is succoured by some ripple or another that cascades from such triumphs, and few are those that do not manage to clutch at some straw on the bandwagon moving forward.

But nothing can be further from the truth for those that till the soil. Exacerbated by market dynamics and poor value chain management, and left to their own devices by a vacuum of policy and direction, the mood among farmers and rural stakeholders is subdued, to say the least.

And while farmers are calling it a day and we rely more heavily on food imports, while access to land creates an insurmountable barrier for a new generation and farmers are asking their children to take on other careers, our arable land is being abandoned to the whims of the weeds that conceal the fertile soil with unattended vegetation.

Sure enough this art mitluqa (abandoned land) is music to the ears of those that see much beyond the weeds and the soil, the farmland or the rubble wall.

Speculators and developers make a case for constructing blocks of apartments, petrol stations, fast-food restaurants and myriad other development, and use the art mitluqa as one of their major arguments.

I invite you to all be partisans of our food producers, who are also the stewards of our countryside. Let’s give them the will to fight the battle for the land they till

Like predators in bushes, they await the slow demise of a sector on its knees to prey upon the pounds of flesh being left behind by our food producers – one plot at a time.

We are also being made aware of even more worrisome cases – farmers still working their land being sent evacuation notices to make way for even more concrete blocks.

Perhaps little is the farmers’ aforementioned subdued mood more blatant than in the recent interviews they gave to one television station, summarised by one of the farmers’ concluding remarks. He, referring to a development that will swallow his land whole, said: “Whatever needs to be done shall be done.”

Resigned to fate and with no will to fight the battle, these farmers’ endeavours to produce food will be no more. We may have read about the plight of South American farmers who are being bought out by multinational companies, but a very similar story is taking place in our backyard.

To resist is to withstand an action, and we can try and do this by supporting organisations that oppose such development. But we can also resist by choice – choosing and asking for local products in supermarkets, restaurants, hotels and bars.

We get to vote to keep our green spaces every time we buy food. The canvassers and street leaders will be in fields and farms growing the food for you, and their promotional material is the freshest and most nutritious food you’ll ever come across.

You will not find a greater underdog than our farmers, but they are banking on you to vote for them. I invite you to all be partisans of our food producers, who are also the stewards of our countryside. Let’s give them the will to fight the battle for the land they till, so we all can enjoy fresh air, green spaces and superior quality food.

Malcolm Borg is deputy director at Mcast’s Institute of Applied Sciences, in charge of the Centre for Agriculture, Aquatics & Animal Sciences.