AGRICULTURE; ANSWER TO UNEMPLOYMENT

Sir,

Thank you for allowing me space in your newspaper to point out something that I feel would be beneficial to the country’s citizens, especially the youth. I appeal on behalf of every young person who either does farming (commercial or subsistence) or has family lands to do it. I would also like to appeal to the Ministry of Agriculture in our country to come up with a programme for grants (whether in money or farm material) to help harness the climaxed level of unemployment.
We could even write proposals stating how much land we have and what we would plant or raise in it.

Furthermore, we could state who we would sell such things to. We are sitting at home with hectares of lands particularly in rural areas and are constantly tempted to grow cannabis in these lans because of lack of resources to start up proper agricultural investments so as to contribute to the economy that is in crisis.
 I strongly believe agriculture can prune the tragedy of lack of jobs by half in its current figures. We ask our elders in the ministry to hear this solemn cry and attend to the current disaster that has emerged to tarnish the image of the country.

We cannot run away from the fact that despite all the available employment and job creation opportunities, the appreciation of agriculture by the youth as a potential investment and employment field is still very low. It is a known fact that many young people will not want to take the risk of establishing their own mid-sized farms, instead they opt for a combination of some part-time farming and supplying services to their neighbours, such as machinery service, transport, simple veterinary services, repair of equipment, etc. Others may choose from an even wider range of wage-based work, from unskilled day labour to highly skilled positions on large commercial farms or in food processing. All of these options represent real opportunities for Africa’s young people.

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