Óscar "Toto" Policastro, 97 years old, left agricultural work at 97 after 85 years in the field, in Morse, in the province of Buenos Aires, Argentina. The farewell took place at the end of July, a few days before he turned 97. The decision was linked to physical difficulties, including loss of sensation in his hands that made repairs on the machine difficult, and the need for help to keep the combine harvester running, which altered the economic viability of the activity.
Toto began working with his father at 12 years old, when he accompanied the harvests and manually climbed up and down the machine's platform. In the machines he knew in the early years, the tasks were shared among four people: one drove, two filled and sewed the bags, and another moved the platform. Over the decades, he saw mechanization transform the sector, with one person doing the work that previously required four workers, and computer systems arriving in the fields.
The working conditions during harvests are etched in the farmer's memory. In summer, he slept under the combine harvester during the wheat campaigns that took him far from the town. He also recalled the scarcity of tires and fuel during the war years and the absence of direct seeding and herbicides currently available, in a time when farms had 40, 50 or 100 hectares.
His children accompanied Toto when the combine harvester was delivered for scrapping, which moved the family. At the destination, he explained to the workers what the different components of the machine were for, maintaining the same care he had shown for decades. The machine will, however, have a different fate: it will be preserved and displayed in Morse, the land where Toto worked for 85 years, as recognition of his career dedicated to agriculture.
