By Enoth Mbeine
RECENTLY, Kabaka of Buganda, Ronald Muwenda
Mutebi II called on the youth to remain in the rural areas instead of migrating
to cities in such of elusive opportunities.
This call by His Majesty could not have come
at a better time like now as youth unemployment reaches alarming levels. The
migration of the youth to towns has left behind ageing farmers and declining
traditional agricultural systems. Currently, the youth and young people
constitute about 78% of Uganda’s population.
According to a World Bank report of 2008,
youth unemployment in Uganda is at 83%, ranking only second after Niger in the
world.
One way of addressing this big problem is
coming up with strategic interventions to attract the youth to the agriculture
sector. The call for the youth to return to villages will make meaning if the
youth are encouraged to be more involved in farming.
And to do this, agriculture must be
transformed from purely subsistence to commercial farming, where farmers
undertake agriculture as a business that can help them earn enough income to
prosper.
There is an urgent task at hand and this
requires a multidisciplinary approach. Agriculture development practitioners,
policy makers, the private sector, agricultural government agencies and other
professional must articulate a new vision of agriculture that can be attractive
to the young people and align with their aspirations and interests.
The first step is to change the image and
perceptions about agriculture in the face of the youth. Agriculture, in
particular farming possesses a negative image among the public (including
mainly the youth). Portrayed as a low-income, high-risk career, public
perception of the industry and farming must be improved to entice more youth to
choose agriculture as a career.
The youth need to be educated and made aware
of how farmers operate today. Agriculture has significantly changed. Farmers
are now educated, business-savvy entrepreneurs who possess some extensive
training and knowledge. There are currently many formally employed people who
are abandoning their lucrative jobs to venture into farming.
The positive aspects of choosing farming
should be emphasised to the youth i.e. owning your own business, choosing your
own hours and having a variety of daily responsibilities.
One reason the young are aloof to agriculture
is for a fact that they are seen as a neglected lot by government line
institutions that promote the sector. The youth are normally excluded in policy
discussions relating to access to agriculture and rural market development.
The policies at national level also rarely
feature the concern or issues of the young on the future of food, farming and
development. The line Ministry of agriculture can, for example, set up a Youth
Advisory Committee to look into various ways of attracting and retaining the
youth in this sector.
The committee can be composed of mainly youth
who are engaged in agriculture to act as role models. The main mandate of the
committee would be to meet regularly to develop and provide recommendations
regarding youth attraction and retention in agriculture.
As an effort to make agriculture attractive,
the Government should strengthen and maintain agricultural institutions for
extension, research and innovation, credit, agro-processing and marketing in
order to enhance efficiency and effectiveness of farming enterprises.
Access to affordable credit is another key
factor in attracting the youth to farming. The young people tend to have fewer
chances of obtaining capital or credit. Access is often tied to availability of
collateral, which is usually land that the young people do not have.
It is, therefore, important that appropriate
affordable financial packages are put in place by financial institutions
involved in agricultural lending.
To further attract the youth into
agriculture, deliberate efforts by agri-support agencies to make inputs such as
good seed, fertilisers, basic mechanisation and agricultural market information
available and affordable should be undertaken.
There is also a need to change the
agriculture curriculum in the universities to ensure that it attracts interest
of the youth and to also translate the research activities into direct action
on the field for the benefit of farmers. More emphasis should also be put on
creating more vocational training centres for the youth to revive agriculture.
Agribusiness support agencies should also
play a key role in attracting the youth in agriculture. They can do this by
highlighting in their mandates for interventions, a criterion for youth
involvement for programmes they intend to support. The agricultural subsectors
that have potential to increase employment of mainly the youth should be
strategically supported.
When agriculture becomes a truly viable
venture, we are more than certain that the youth of Uganda will be enthusiastic
in taking it up. In a country where university graduates are prepared to work
as night guards, street vendors etc, profitable farming can be attractive.
The challenge that we must take up, as
leaders, facilitators, policy makers and private sector in Uganda’s
agricultural development is to build the capacities of the youth and equip them
to address the emerging requirements of an attractive agriculture and non-farm
rural economy that offers prospects for viable incomes and good quality of
life.
Writer is a Senior Consultant, Business
Development Services
Original Article Here
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