‘Youths abandoning agriculture over lack of support, training’

Unavailability of farming space, lack of government support and inadequate training have been identified as major reason for youths shunning agriculture.

A Lagos-based farmer, Mr. Nwosu Edidot, who disclosed this to The Guardian, also added that their preference for white-collar jobs is another factor driving them away from farming.

“As a farmer, I will testify to the fact that unavailability of space constitutes a serious challenge to our youths who are dreaming of investing in agriculture, and it depends on the type of farming they want to venture into. For instance, if you want to go into crop production, land space is not easy to come by and even when you rent a land, the highest duration may be five or 10 years.

“If you are to be a perennial type of farmer, you cannot plant crops like palm tree, coconut tree, mango tree and orange tree on another person’s land that after 10 to 20 years they will tell you that your rent has expired.

“Government’s neglect is also another challenge. Loans and other financial support from government do not get to farmers and farming is very expensive. For example, if you want to farm on a 30-plot of land, you will be spending over N3 million for bush clearing, planting and weeding. So, how many youths will have such an amount to put into that, rather they will use it for something more lucrative.

“Education is another striking challenge, farmers should be educated, and the truth is that most farmers don’t like going for training. When farmers are educated, they will think of other methods they can use to preserve their crops without the government help.”

Edidot who revealed this challenge has created a negative notion on the youths, expressed optimism that they could change the narrative, because they are educated, adding that farming can be brought to the forefront as white collar jobs if the major challenges are addressed.

“Farming is capital intensive, because before you can make money from it, you should have about 15 plots of land or thereabout and most youth run to towns where there are not enough land space to farm.

“Government should invest in agriculture. They should fund farmers, provide necessary equipment for them to rent at a cheaper rate that will help in the cultivation of their crops, because you cannot tell me that a youth who sees all the stress that farmers are going through will also want to venture into such a stressful career.

“The government should also make agriculture a compulsory course in school, from primary to secondary level, so that when students come out of secondary school to study agriculture, they will know exactly what they are doing, I say this because it is so sad that majority of our youths that are studying agriculture in the universities did not choose it, they took it out of no choice.”

He said, “students in primary and secondary schools should be taught on how to farm and how they could survive with the help of farming. Also, teachers should be monitored, because some of these teachers are even the ones discouraging the students from seeing the usefulness of farming by how they teach them.”

“This is because some youths, after finishing their secondary school education might not be able to go further and that is why if they are well taught, they can start up a small farm and through it they are able to survive on their own. When it comes to the tertiary education, government should equip universities that are teaching agriculture related courses, so that students are not discouraged,” he said.