Encourage youth in agriculture
The world population is expected to reach 9 billion by 2050. This poses a major challenge to food security, if productivity does not match population demands. Africa is being viewed as the next food basket of the world due to the vast arable land and huge irrigation potential.
Yet, Africa still fails to feed itself to date due to low adoption of improved farming technologies such as the use of improved seed, fertilisers and irrigation.
Worse still, young people seem to undervalue the role of agriculture as the major income source among 80 per cent of Africa’s farming population – small holders.
As an Aspen New Voices fellow (2017) and a young Ugandan engaged in agriculture and livelihoods promotion, I was invited to speak at the World Food Price 2017 Borlaug dialogue at Des Moines, Iowa state, US. Together with a nutritionist from CGIAR, an agriculture policy expart from FANPRAN, an agriprenur from Mali and Uganda’s 2016 best young farmer award winner, we interrogated the challenges affecting young farmers in Africa and how to attract them towards engaging in agriculture as a business at a panel moderated by the vice president AGRA.
My submission was that three questions are being asked by the young people of Africa for which they desperately need answers: Does agriculture pay enough for one to lead a sustainable livelihood? Can I practise agriculture in a dignified way such that I am respected by my peers and my community? Is agriculture a reliable venture to invest in – looking at the numerous shocks and losses that farmers incur from weather vagaries and post-harvest losses? Many young people view agriculture as a risky enterprise that does not pay well, especially in the absence of credit providers, insurance on crop and livestock loses and a reliable market for agriculture products.
One of the young sweet potato farmers, I recently interacted with Okwi in Amuria District, was highly disappointed with the outcome of the hard work he had put to grow two acres of sweet potatoes.
Okwi had invested about Shs300,000 to heap, plant and manage the field for four months. He had hoped to get about Shs1,000,000 to meet his school fees requirements and household needs. He is the eldest son in a family of seven children and doubles as the bread winner.
Okwis’ potatoes did very well upon receiving good rains. However, the market he had targeted – supplying sweet potatoes to Kenya, did not materialise.
His potatoes were picked up by middlemen, who paid Shs30,000 a basin for a full sack of potatoes! He was helpless and cut a frustrated face when I interacted with him.
“I have wasted a lot of time and money, but now I am going to lose. No wonder some of my friends do not want to venture in to agriculture”, he said.
Okwi was not able to even recover his production costs and some of his potatoes ended up rotting in the garden when he refused to give them away to the seemingly greedy middlemen. He is an example of many other farmers who have suffered from the burden of high input costs, unreliable markets and weather shocks. Yet middlemen walk away smiling every year as they offer farmers low prices for their hard earned produce.
However, Okwis’ testimony is an opportunity for organisations and individuals engaged in agriculture promotion to prove that it pays despite the bad season that he had experienced. One of these organisations is OneAcreFund Uganda that has been running trials on market access improvement for Busoga maize farmers to address the challenge of marketing of produce.
Together with the agriculture input credit that this organisation and a few others offer to the farmers, along with a guarantee of weather assistance and appropriate agriculture trainings, I believe that young people will soon find their way in to farming as a business.
The future in agriculture programing in Uganda is therefore very promising, if we focus on working with young people that dominate this country.
In fact, Uganda happens to have the youngest population on the planet with a median age of 15.8 years. This calls for an urgent shift of focus by development actors towards prioritising young people and to identify avenues to involve them across the agriculture value chain.
Yes, working with young people is risky. Someone once said young people worry, often complain, make mistakes, don’t know yet who they are or easily let go of things as they priotise having fun.
It is true that we do all these things. We may be risky to do business with, but we are the most energetic, passionate and curious individuals, who can guarantee the future of agriculture in Uganda.
Mr Ariong is an agriculture and environment expert and an Aspen New Voices Fellow +256777332193
