Youth And Agriculture

We are currently witnessing a growth rate in most African countries of 5% and above. This should be maintained through agriculture, which is main sector in Africa and has been thought of as an important facet for poverty reduction, as it provides livelihoods to 2.5billion people and has been lagging behind the population growth. Africa has a large, young growing workforce and will be the largest by 2030, and thus should be motivated to participate in Agriculture. Better conditions are therefore required for many farmers to flourish and thus the need for transformation of Agriculture. This involves moving from viewing Agriculture as a social sector or development activity to viewing it as a business and a means to reach integration. The chief cause of poverty is the high unemployment rate and the major disconnect from the agricultural sector (e.g. Kenya). As of 2016, the unemployment rate among the Kenya’s youth has been estimated to stand at 17.3% compared to 6% for both Uganda and Tanzania. This huge unemployment rate lowers the growing labour force, mainly composed of the youth, that’s put to productive use. Despite this, Africa’s economy is growing fast, second to Asia, yet almost half the continent population live in poverty. In Kenya, most agricultural activities are done at substantial level and thus commercialization of this sector would increase the productivity and thus attract the jobless youth into venturing in agriculture. This would mean providing education on efficient ways of doing farming and resources like fertilizers and seeds made accessible at standardized prices with loans also made more available at discounted rates. Commercialization of the sector would further promote surplus of production as opposed to consumption, as even the subsistence farmers would take the produce to the market rather than for family consumption. These would even encourage the youth to seek self-employment opportunities in the sector as agriculture would now be in a position to compensate them financially. International financing systems are very unkind to jobless youth in terms of collateral and access to credit. Therefore, the empowerment of the youth through land ownership/leasing rights and less stringent conditions in availing financing ought to be promoted. In the long run, this will narrow the gap between the rich and poor in the society as this will create an environment where the youth, who make up majority of Kenya’s population, are not dependent on their parents for financial support as they can also produce. The government should also ensure that infrastructures like roads and communication networks are improved for smallholders’ success in production, with advanced technology being adopted in the agricultural sector to ensure effective production. Furthermore, the government’s role in agriculture is not to produce but provide an enabling environment like policies and institutions that support agricultural activities and shouldn’t be a producer in the sector but minimize privatization. Therefore, commercialization of Agriculture could be a solution to both the abject poverty and the high unemployment rate both being witnessed in the East African Countries.