I am glad for having the privilege to express myself on this forum.
In my country Nigeria, farmers, particularly youth, find it difficult to engage in agriculture due to financial weaknesses. It is believed that farming is no longer a tradition, but rather a business. For any business to ignite, one has to ensure that money is adequately setup for the business. In Nigeria most of our youth are well capacitated with agricultural skills but unfortunately money is becoming a barrier. Most of our youth received series of trainings on how to run their agricultural businesses, but they lack financial cover for the business. I'm saying this based on experience as an extension agent. Currently in Nigeria, there is an ongoing project called "TRIMING PROJECT". This project is aiming at building the capacity of the farmers particularly youth and women in order to change their mindset and increase productivity. This project employs 'Farmer field and business school (FFBS)' extension strategy to train farmers and address their problems in a participatory web. I'm one of the FFBS facilitators, and we are in the second year but this project gained audience and many farmers became experts in agricultural production. Now that they became experts, they need financial support to take off. And make sure the support follows the appropriate channels to reach farmers. I am sure that if our FFBS Farmers obtained financial support, the next generation of millionaires in Nigeria will be farmers. We have the land, labor, management, but we lack finance which is the most fundamental factor of production as far as agribusiness is concerned.
Г-н Musa Usman Musa