I believe I am not a youth but I respond to the questions basing on my vast relationship with youths ... what I see and what I hear them say...
How would you describe your experience as an Africa youth engaged in the agriculture sector in your country? What motivated you to engage into the agriculture sector?
Youth are reluctant to engage in agriculture. This is because it needs patience, innovation, hard work and a lot more. The city life has bigger attractions to the youth of today. Technology growth, using social media and more is more exciting in the cities than rural areas. Even jobs...one gets a pay at the end of a job or month in relation to waiting for four months to get an earning.
Agriculture is a lot more than any other job. It calls for passion, interest, patience, innovation, name it. That said, youth that engage in agriculture are often successful.
What have been your major achievements? Do you have any experience or innovative ways that have helped you in your work that you would want to share? Do you have a success story – either your own or any other that you are aware of - of youth engaged in agriculture in your country? What is the story?
My major achievements in working with the youth is enticing them back to agriculture. There those that have actually settled back to the rural settings. Those in the city, I encourage them to practise urban farming and with time, start investing back in the rural areas either by buying farm land or hiring farm land. I walk along with them in showing them how to reap maximally from the land, starting from doing your financial forecasts, research of the targeted crop to plant and markets and more, even before you break the ground. It’s amazing how they adhere. But to me that makes me happy because they are achieving their city life at the same time farming. We need the youth in farming because they are the farmers of tomorrow.
Yes I have some success stories: Mathias. He lived with his uncle and was often attracted to the computers at our office in Mayuge district. One day i noticed that he was at the computers instead of school, and when I asked, he said that it was due to school fees. As an institution we took on this challenge of his and he obtained a certificate in business administration at a prestigious university in Kampala. When he completed, he was totally drawn to the city life and was looking for a job there. To me, it meant that we were losing yet another farmer to the city life. I enticed him back by giving him a volunteer job at the office, a post he held and upgraded to project office. Today, he manages his own youth farmer’s network in rural mayuge. It has spread to i think four districts in the east. They produce honey, make candles, shampoo, and other products. I am very proud of him and many others that I have pulled back to till the land.
If given an opportunity, what question would you ask the experts at the Rwanda Youth conference on each of the three sub-themes – a). Youth Employment and Entrepreneurship, b). Digital Innovation to Overcome Agriculture Value-Chain Constraints, and c). Future of Work in Rural Economy - of the conference?
a). Youth Employment and Entrepreneurship
How are you repackaging farming to make it more enticing to the youth?
b). Digital Innovation to Overcome Agriculture Value-Chain Constraints
The youth are attracted to digital innovations, and fast tracking ones. Is there any way you are using these to get the youth in rural areas involved as well?
c). Future of Work in Rural Economy ?
There is a huge gap between the rural and urban and especially in regards to farming. What initiatives have been taken to reduce this divide? And especially the ones that make the youth more convinced to stay in the rural areas and till the land?
Г-жа Ednah Karamagi