Agriculture
SOME stakeholders in agriculture have decried the disinterest of many youths in agriculture, describing the development as inimical to the nation’s food security.
The stakeholders, in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Wednesday, said that the three tiers of government must work together to make agriculture attractive and revenue earner.
Mr Ismail Olawale, a Fellow at the National Extension and Agriculture Research Liaison Services (NAERLS), said a problem currently affecting the agriculture sector in Nigeria, was the lack of interest of youths in proper farming and cultivation practices.
According to him, the few young people you found in some areas of agriculture are mainly concerned on the investment and monetary aspects.
“We have a problem in this country because of the lack of interest of young people in farming and crop cultivation. The issue is that young people are no longer taking agriculture as a career.
“Where you find young people in agriculture is when they are holding on to a state-sponsored agriculture development program which in most cases, is on a short-term basis.
“When you find young people in agriculture, it is mainly for monetary purpose or the so-called ‘entrepreneurship drive’ and not for real farming, crop production or animal production.
“Whereas the first call of agriculture is to produce food and improve food productivity and security in any country. We need to recruit more youths into agriculture for future purposes,” Olawale said.
Also, Mr Godwin Egbebe, the Chairman of the Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN), noted that the reason most young people give for not being interested in agribusiness and its growing opportunity was because of they crave for quick money.
He also called for an enabling environment to encourage youths to embrace agriculture as a career and not just on a part-time basis.
“Unfortunately most young people are not seeking the various opportunities in agribusiness or even the poultry sector because they are looking for quick money.
“When we started poultry farming as young graduates, we were eager to farm and work hard but these days, you rarely find a youth that is eager to learn and work on farms.
“There is also no enabling environment for these youths to start small, when we started, we set up our farms in our neighborhoods but now, that is almost impossible owing to pollution reasons.
“These are some of the challenges we have in encouraging young people into poultry because little money cannot start any farm now.
“We need to invest in our youths financially and in training to encourage them in agribusiness ventures. They are indeed the future, if we want to ensure food security in Nigeria,” Egbebe said. (NAN)
– May 26, 2021 @ 15:05 GMT
Tags: Stakeholders decry youths’ waning interest in Agriculture
