Agriculture and the Youth
For fifty-nine year old Nigerian animal Farmer, Mallam Musa, there was never a thought that crossed his mind that his children would rear cattle or own a pig farm someday. According to him, all his children, who happened to be girls would be married off to wealthy men when they were “ripe for marriage.” I sat with him over a meal of “tuwon shinkafa” — a traditional Nigerian type of “swallow” food made from rice — and miyan Kuka, a soup derived from Baobab trees. I asked him why he didn’t want his daughters to follow in his farming footsteps.
“Farming life is too tough” he answered in Hausa. “I don’t want my daughters to go through all of the struggles that I went through growing up.” He continued. “The market sometimes is slow, and because of the economy, farmers like me find it hard to meet our sales goals, and that affects our profit margin. This farming lifestyle is not something I want for my daughters. I want them to be able to have a good life, grow up, finish secondary school and get married.” I disagreed with his stance, but I could not blame his worldview much because he was right to a certain extent, the economy is struggling, and people across different socio-economic classes were looking to invest in their children so that at the end of the day, they would land high-paying white collar jobs. Although that was an admirable thing, the truth of the matter was glaringly obvious; Agriculture had lost its appeal to the masses. It is no longer seen as a respectable profession that it used to be, but rather, it is seen as a grueling and laborious “side gig” to keep old people in their declining years busy.
Despite its withered state, there used to be a time when agriculture was attractive. I remember a time many years ago when my Mother owned a poultry farm. Then, she would employ the services of the youth to make sure that the chickens were well fed and their metal coops, sparkling clean and filled to the brim with chicken feed. I was young then, but for all it is worth, I enjoyed feeding the chickens and said that one day I would grow up to own a big farm just like my mother. Watching my mother take care of her broiler chickens and then sell them off during the festive seasons gave me much perspective on life. As a child, it subconsciously taught me that I had to work to earn money — that money didn’t grow from thin air. This lesson, though basic, is a principle that has stayed with me for over two decades. Secondly, because I grew up on a farm, I know that the career possibilities in Agriculture are endless, but the times have changed, and somehow somewhere, agriculture has slipped through the cracks and become a profession that is now deemed undesirable by the masses, but most especially, the youth.
In a paper presented by the Minister of Agriculture under the former president of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo; Adamu Bello praised his administration for the efforts and solid agricultural policies that they pioneered which in turn created a substantial livelihood for many Nigerians and even made a few Nigerians multi-millionaires. Adamu Bello mentioned that Chief Obasanjo’s government created an agricultural structure that worked well for the masses and enabled a lot of young farmers to earn a decent livelihood through farm-related work. While speaking at a job fair in Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife on the topic, ‘Unemployment in Nigeria: The Way Out’, the former president himself who has run farms across the nation since 1979, encouraged the youth to take the initiative and become sole entrepreneurs in the agribusiness sector because there were untapped opportunities waiting to be seized within the industry.
Much work still needs to be done to make the youth realize that farming is “cool,” and there are a lot of moral and financial incentives involved in driving up interest in the Agric sector, however I have come to understand that farming is a lot like growing up and finding one’s place in the world. You plant a seed — or two — nurture it, it germinates, and despite some of the challenges that you experience in farming, with persistence and consistency, you get your harvest at the end of the day. It is the same principle that applies to human growth, and there is a life lesson to be learned here; the lesson of perseverance.
If you are a millennial; know that now is the time to take charge, there are limitless opportunities in the Agric sector that can fuel your dreams financially. Now is the time. There are many types of farming that you can consider such as fruit farming, animal farming, vegetable farming, and the list goes on. With the advent of farming technology, there is no limit to what you can do in the agricultural space.
