Hello,
My contribution to the E-consultation on youth feeding the future is written below.
Youth – feeding the future: Addressing the challenges faced by rural youth aged 15 to 17 in preparing for and accessing decent work
Many youths aged 15 – 17 years who live in rural areas of Nigeria are in their final years of senior secondary school (high school) or have finished with secondary school education. Hence for many, their minds are on the next step to take in life; whether to further their education at tertiary level, learn a trade, or get married (mostly for the girls). Many are already looking forward to leaving their villages to move to the towns and cities where they hope to improve their living conditions and earn good money. They see the towns and cities as having better job opportunities.
In order to involve this group of young people in agriculture in their villages, that is, to convince them to remain in rural parts to pursue agriculture, it is important that these young people see a future for them in agriculture. That is, by becoming farmers, they can take care of themselves and their dependents and not lose out on what their counterparts in urban areas have.
Currently many young Nigerians perceive agriculture to be an occupation of poor people and which demands so much strenuous work.
This perception combined with limited/dysfunctional infrastructure and social amenities including lack of clean drinking water, noon-functional poor health facilities and low manpower, protracted power outages, bad internal roads and limited recreational facilities, results in negative attitude towards pursuing a career in agriculture. To accomplish the objective of changing this perception and persuading youths to take up agriculture, would require participation of several participants including government at all levels, ministries of agriculture, education and youth development, and private organisations.
In preparing the document for the FAO e-consultancy, a 17-year old girl was asked if she would like to remain in the village as a farmer. Her not surprising response was no and the reasons she gave were:
Less exposure arising from limited ICT (mobile and internet penetration), supply of electricity, and social network (because villages are not metropolitan which allows for meeting and learning from people of various cultures and backgrounds).
Job opportunities are less in the villages and those available are not satisfying and fulfilling.
Agricultural practices in the village are still old fashioned and tedious due to non-availability of affordable suitable machinery.
General poor state of health, water supply, power and road infrastructure in villages.
The young girl was then asked what could be done to convince her to remain in the village as a farmer. She mentioned the following:
Enlightenment on the prospects of agriculture in Nigeria including vocational training, and professional courses on modern agricultural practices.
Functional health and social infrastructure including mobile and internet penetration.
Ready market for sale of agriculture produce.
In view of the foregoing, a programme/project which significantly addresses the aforementioned issues, would contribute to changing the perception about agriculture in rural places and willingness of young people to take it up. One such programme/project could be to set up ‘impact camps’ in rural area. For a start, the pilot communities should be selected based on economic and social assessments, amongst other criteria. The ‘impact camps’ should be a public private partnership (PPP) arrangement. The camps should have facilities that provide access to internet (through telecom operators), provide professional courses on modern agriculture including climate- smart practices, as well as module on basic reading and writing, training on accessing local, regional, international finance and markets, and offer programmes that reward sound agricultural practices and yield.
Basically, the camps would be local hubs for promoting agriculture (and economic) ecosystems and sustainable livelihoods in each community. It is very likely that when such ecosystem has formed, development in terms of social infrastructure would naturally be attracted to these areas.
It is recommended that youths from their first year in junior secondary school (say, from 11 years) and those that have completed secondary school (say, up to 20 years) are part of the programme/project. Catching youths as young as 11 years would make it easier for them to ‘see a future’ for themselves in agriculture by the time they are 15 – 17 years and near completion or have completed school. Extending the programme to people 18 – 20 years old makes it easier for transitioning of the target group (15 – 17 years) to adult life as modern farmers.
Best regards,
Jessy Hims.
Jessy Hims