Investing in youth to promote agribusiness

The agricultural sector, until lately, was spurned by those who could promote it: the government, the financial institution, the business community, the insurance industry, the academia, the social service providers and even those who claim to be fighting for the environment.

Now that the narrative is changing, a major aspect of reforms in agriculture has been identified as the job composition, in which case the population of stakeholders in agriculture has become skewed towards those of average age of 60 years. Involvement of youth, particularly the upwardly mobile, educated, energetic and passionate ones, can no longer be ignored as more and more are getting interested and getting involved.

Today’s generation of young people – defined by the UN as those aged 15 to 24 – is the largest in history. In developing countries, young people make up 20 per cent of the population on the average, and as such, they represent a huge potential resource to those countries. The numbers of young people are growing fast in developing countries. This is especially evident in sub-Saharan Africa where, in some countries, more than 60 per cent of the population is less than 25 years old.

This increases pressure on the labour market. When young rural women and men cannot get adequate education, make a living or create a secure home, they move to sprawling urban areas or to foreign countries – they believe – offer more hope. Too many of them become mired in urban poverty. This is a tremendous loss of human potential for their families, and for their nations. Nigeria is making a point to correct these grim prospects.

Recent statistics from the International Labour Organisation showed that between 1997 and 2007, the ratio of youth-to-adult unemployment rose from 2:6 to 2:8; meaning that young people today are almost three times more likely to be unemployed than adults. They earn less than $2 a day, outnumber young unemployed people by a factor of 4 and typically work in rural areas.

The consequences of failing to provide job opportunities for these young men and women can be far-reaching. Underemployed rural young people, particularly, become frustrated and idle because they have failed to find decent jobs after migrating to urban centres. Unfortunately, urban labour markets are frequently unable to absorb the inflow of migrant workers, and many young migrants lack the education and skills to compete for decent urban jobs and therefore contribute to social unrest, crime and even armed conflicts.

Even for the educated, the formal sector, particularly the public sector, is not well positioned to employ them. Rather, there exist boundless opportunities in the informal private sector, and agriculture tops the chart of where great opportunities await them. Since agriculture is in the concurrent list of Nigerian constitution, states need to develop strategies that would bring youth into the mainstream agriculture, with necessary policies to keep them there.

The governments at the state levels need to tap into the energy of the young people by investing in them and supporting them to be productive. Young people have power and persistence. In the right conditions, a substantial young generation offers a priceless resource for economic development and social progress. Now that there is a problem with the natural resource called petroleum and the revenue from it seems to be failing the nation, the states can afford to look in the direction of the natural resources in agriculture and human resources called youth for a bail-out.

On the flip side, acting in the wrong direction, disenchanted youth can bring a nation on its knees. Recent events in the Arab region and more sporadic incidents in Europe and elsewhere bear testimony, among other things, to the consequences of populations that are both young and unemployed. Although the level and the nature of grievances differ, when young people are frustrated by poverty, unemployment and lack of rights, they do not sit by passively. They act.

One of our greatest global challenges — feeding the world — is also our greatest opportunity. With world population set to peak at over nine billion in 2050, and Nigeria’s population estimated to hit half a billion then, we need to begin to prepare young people to produce, as there are projections that food production will need to rise by 70 per cent, creating opportunities for young farmers and workers in rural areas.

The sheer force of numbers means that we urgently need to harness the power and creativity of young adults. We need them to produce, process and market the food that will feed us. We also need them to play their part — as entrepreneurs, service providers and wage earners — in the development and economic growth of their communities. And we need them to lend their weight and their will to the fight for good governance and social progress at all levels.

As demographic balance shifts more in favour of cities, the rural areas need vibrant economies to keep the youth there and the states have a lot expected of them in this. It is important to create an environment that will encourage and enable young women and men to remain in their communities. The states are where the land is. These are compelling reasons to place rural young people and smallholder agriculture at the forefront of strategies for food security, poverty reduction and income growth which they urgently need to develop.

And if they have not developed their own, let them key into what the government at the centre is developing and use for the benefits of their own respective political territories. When finance is available, young rural people seize the opportunities. Initiatives that improve the opportunities for young people to take part in decent agricultural and non-agricultural work provide larger benefits for social harmony, as well as for food security and poverty reduction.

Responding to the challenges of enhanced agricultural productivity and rural economic growth demands at least three things: investment in social and economic infrastructure in rural areas; the creation of remunerative economic opportunities for young people in agriculture and in the rural non-farm economy; and the provision of expanded opportunities for young men and women to build the capacity and skills they need to take advantage of these opportunities.

Putting young people first is not an option, it is an obligation. The steps that the federal government is taking need to be complemented by the states to boost the appeal of agriculture to the youthful populace. It is time the new generation of farmers become a priority of our state governors.

 

Olukayode Oyeleye

Dr. Oyeleye is the Special Assistant on Media, Office of the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development.