Making agriculture more appealing to the youth

Robert Sabiiti, Agricultural Economist and Uganda's representative to the UN agencies responsible for food and agriculture shares insights on the steps being taken by Uganda to make agriculture more appealing with Josephat Juma of The African Executive. Sabiiti works in the Department of Agricultural Planning of Uganda's Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries.

Q : Ghana's President John Agyekum Kufuor recently decried the unpopularity of agriculture among his country's youth. Why do African university students find agriculture unattractive?

A : It is important to remember that Africa is not homogeneous. It is characterised by different cultures and socio-economic challenges. The disincentives range from a poor perception of agriculture to limited investment in the sector.

The low position that agriculture occupies in society even among the farming communities makes it unattractive to the young generation. The historic context of agriculture in Africa, in general, and Uganda, in particular, reveals that farming is a responsibility of the poor and uneducated. The majority view agriculture as an ignoble profession in which one should not be involved if there was an alternative. Most of the small scale farmers consider themselves unemployed. They focus on agriculture as a way of life and not as a business.

The majority of communities, including farmers, advise the youth to train in areas other than farming, especially those offering white-collar jobs. This was compounded by the fact that in lower school, students showing errant behaviour were in the past given portions of land to cultivate as punishment for their actions. From that age, the children view agriculture as a burdensome activity and punishment which should be resented.

Lack of investment capital for the young undergraduate students and graduates to acquire land and undertake agriculture is a great disincentive. In addition, the fact that agricultural entails high risk and low returns on investment sometimes makes it unattractive to the elite. This situation is exacerbated by the agricultural commodity prices which are ever fluctuating on the local markets and declining on the international market.

The fact that one has to be in the rural areas to be a good farmer is another disincentive to the young graduates who have been staying and studying in the urban centres with better conditions of living such as good housing, electricity, various forms of entertainment and easy communication. Female graduate youths may find it difficult to go and stay in the rural areas, where prospects for them to get suitable men to marry them are diminished. Newly married couples tend to stay in the urban centres where there are good schools for their children.

Q : What steps are being taken in Uganda to attract university youths to agriculture?

A : The middle class are being encouraged to undertake market-oriented agriculture and in the process, demonstrate to the university youths that agriculture is not only noble, but is also a profitable and respectable occupation. Programmes specifically targeting the youths in agriculture are being provided. The rural finance services programme will provide the youth with targeted financial services to help them undertake various activities including agriculture. During the late 1990s, the government initiated a programme to recruit graduate extension staff at the sub-county level to assist farmers improve their agriculture.This is being strengthened. In the process, the recruited staff appreciated and developed an interest in farming themselves.

The educational curricula is being modified to ensure that agriculture is taught in schools at different levels, hence helping the youth to appreciate it. A policy to abolish corporal punishment in general and digging in particular is another stride to boost the status of agriculture among the youth. There is a deliberate government policy at all levels of government to encourage young people to take up agriculture as a business and not as just a way of life.

Q : Herbicides can make minimum tillage or no tillage possible. Are these technologies good for Africa? Why or why not?

A : Using herbicides which ensure minimum tillage offer both positive and negative aspects to farmers, some being scientific while others are socio-economic and environmental. We need to appreciate why such chemicals were manufactured. While such herbicides help farmers to clear weeds on wide areas in a relatively short time, they pose several challenges.

To begin with, the chemicals are not necessarily selective and will thus destroy un-targeted organisms, thus affecting the ecological balance and eventually affecting agricultural production. Minimum tillage is only applicable over a relatively short time, after which tillage becomes inevitable to access nutrients leached to the lower layers of the soil structure. The fact that the majority of the small scale farmers in developing countries are illiterate, and yet labels on the herbicide containers are in foreign languages, makes it difficult for the farmers to read, understand and apply the agrochemicals appropriately, thus exposing both the farmers' health and the environment to danger. Chemical costs may be prohibitively high and thus not cost-effective for the farmers. Finally, the vast quantities of water required after chemical application may not be readily available, thus contributing to environmental damage.

In view of the above, a rational balance has to be made between use of labour and herbicides depending on the task to be accomplished and the available labour.

African Executive