Why we need more youth in agriculture

Feb 21, 2017

Uganda is mainly an agricultural country and agriculture employs a greater percentage of people.

By Ashiraf Ssebandeke

On Friday, Namboole sports stadium was full of people from different walks of life to attend the Harvest Money Expo organised by the Vision Group.

I was one of the early birds to attend the three-day event for farmers, suppliers and experts in the agricultural sector, where they shared new technologies and how to farm during this period of climatic changes.

As I was walking to the training session, I met a gray-haired old man seated at the stadium stairs. He seemed to be in his 70s. He was sipping soda and eating mchomo. I asked him why he did not send his grand-children to learn and take back the information to him. He cleared his throat and told me, "you young people do not want to engage in farming".

His response prompted me to ask Dr Diana Nambatya during her urban training session how we can attract young people to agriculture. In the queue waiting for my turn to ask, four out of the six people who asked questions had retired from the service.  And even in the training room, save the students who had come from the same agriculture training school, the highest percentage of attendees was of retired civil servants.

I jokingly asked them whether farming was for people who have retired from the service.

Uganda is mainly an agricultural country and agriculture employs a greater percentage of people. However, the youth are shunning it. A greater percentage of Uganda's population is below 30 years and unemployment is so high. However, the agriculture sector, which would have employed the many jobless youth, has not been attractive for them.

The 2014 report titled: "Youth and agriculture: Key challenges and concrete solution" by Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) identified six challenges that bar youth from joining agriculture. It cited insufficient access to knowledge, information and education; limited access to land; inadequate access to financial services; difficulties accessing green jobs; limited access to markets and limited involvement in policy dialogue. However, if we are to get the youth into farming to supplement and replace the ageing farmers, it has to be made as attractive as blue collar jobs, boda boda and betting business.

Akinsumi Adesina, the current president of Africa Development Bank, who previously served as Nigeria's Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, believes farming will produce the next millionaires and billionaires than any other sector in Africa. So are Uganda's youth going to be among the next millionaires and billionaires?

I believe when we address the bottlenecks to entry into agriculture, we shall have more youth joining and help the elderly to retire gracefully. The first step in getting the youth into agriculture is getting them from where they are. Many of them spend more than eight hours daily on social media. Deliver agricultural programmes to the youth through social media platforms. Engage them innovatively on social media.

There has been a challenge of lack of role models in agriculture, which can be handled by promoting those who have succeeded. A youth can be inspired by fellow youth than a gray-haired person who has succeeded in farming.

The youth should be at the frontline of Operation Wealth Creation (OWC). When I visited the stall of OWC, all people were above 40 years yet our youth are below 30 years. When old people lead those initiatives, it will automatically mean they will inspire more pensioners than the youth.

There is urgent need for attitude change by the youth towards agriculture. This change has to start from schools where farming is unfortunately administered as a corporal punishment to students. This has negative effect on the youth, making them think farming is a punishment. It should be deleted from the list of punishments at school. The positive attitude change will attract more youth into farming.

Financing agriculture projects has kept many young people out of the sector. Farming has become expensive with now a need to irrigate due to change in the weather. Many youth who cannot afford the irrigation costs are being kept out of the service.

The Government should come up with agricultural financing, which specialises in lending for machinery and other agricultural inputs and they repay after harvesting. Youth Livelihood Programme would have been a good programme but handing hard cash to youth is tempting. The Government has to zone the country according to what yields more in a particular region.

Limited access to land can be overcome by introducing them to agricultural methods that use the limited space and yields more. Vertical farming is the solution to the increasing pressure on land. One dairy cow can produce 30 litres of milk a day which can also be produced by 10 cows which we usually keep. Instead of keeping 10 cows why don't we keep one cow and get the same amount of milk with minimal space and feeding.

For Uganda to have names of its citizen on the list of next millionaire and billionaires, the youth should look at farming as a smart job no longer reserved for dirty men with torn clothes.

Thank you Vision Group for organising Harvest Money Expo.

The writer is the country representative of the African Sickle Cell News and World Report - Nigeria

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