Young Ugandans Reluctant about Agriculture

Experts argue that Africa’s potential to feed the globe is huge, but the economic importance of this, has not yet sunk in the minds of many young people in the African continent. Important to note, interventions to integrate the youth into agriculture, is little, compared to the need to do so.

A growing concern that must be checked is the dreadful attitudes of the youth in Africa towards agriculture. It is regrettable that as a continent in this 21st century, such misconception does exist!
It is a fact that young and energetic people in Africa are generally reluctant to engage in agriculture anytime the call is made, experts say.
Byte Bashaasha on attitude.
(I think this is an attitude, it is an attitude and you know you can trace it from where many of us come from, many of us come from the rural areas, and its like well when u r doing agriculture you are poor, so after you've gone to school why should u be doing agriculture,and that kind of stuff. The other aspect I think is the school, you know in some schools they still use agriculture as punishment, u come late u go digging, u didn't answer a question right in class you go digging, you know those kind of reinforce that agriculture is not that productive)
ME: Yes indeed, Africa’s youth do have a strong belief that agriculture is a slow sector – a dead-end path in their quest to get rich quickly. A sample of views taken from some Ugandan youth in Kampala confirmed that when confronted with the choice of investing in agriculture or other sectors, the majority of them would opt for other areas of the economy.
Byte 2.youth pop edit stagnant
(no I'd rather invest in the information sector)
3.youth pop boutique edit
( now I've just finished school, so if I had money, I would not invest it in agriculture coz I want something that will bring me quick money, like a boutique!)
4. Youth pop edit yes
(ofcourse I would, umm..my interest in agriculture is because my parents are farmers and right now agriculture would be a very profitable business, so I'd definitely invest in agriculture)
5.youth pop edit not really
(not really, because agriculture is first of all connected to the weather, you must wait for a certain weather so that you grow your crop and the returns of agriculture take long so I wouldn't)
7. Youth pop fashion edit
(no coz agriculture is not really my thing I think I'd go in for another business more like fashion)
ME: A recent conference in Kampala aimed at bringing the farming and banking sectors closer together noted the lack of expertise in agricultural finance as a rising challenge for the Ugandan economy.
ME: Bashaasha blames the poor performance of agricultural finance on policies and plans that ignore labour requirements.
8.Byte inadequate human resource
(the whole planning process doesn’t take into consideration the required human resource capacity you know to deliver. You can have these nice documents, nice plans and even money but you need people, the human resource people to be able to deliver, I think aah the level of training in terms of agricultural finance both I think at undergraduate, even at graduate and even lower levels of diplomas, they are not there, they are inadequate. )
ME: Echoing this, Robert Richards an agricultural economist from New Zealand notes that training programs in Uganda are too few and far between.
9.Byte Richard Roberts
(This country needs good technicians and I look for the technical training opportunities, they exist! question is are there enough of them, I am not so sure about them)
ME: Ushering in a new argument, Francesca Akello from Young Ambassadors for Rural Development states that any interventions for agricultural finance to succeed will certainly require the active involvement of the youth.
10.Byte Akello on strong participation
(we can not begin deliberating issues around agricultural finance for africa in general and uganda in particular without a good and strong representation of the youth and for anything to succeed will need their strong participation)
ME: Akello says inadequate training opportunities are complicating efforts to get Africa's youth interested in the agricultural sector. Bernard Bashaasha from Makarere University agrees…
12.Byte bashasha bite 1
( I’d be happy to see youth targeted programs, in terms of training them really not only in agricultural finance but generally in agriculture. There people we train in Makerere university or other universities, when these people leave there expectations is not to go and practice agriculture, there expectations is to go and get white collar job and may be join a bank or a non governmental organizations)
ME: As commercial farmers complain that their crops are rotting in fields because they can’t find enough laborers to complete the harvest, Bashaasha thinks government should start programs to encourage early school-leavers to find work on farms.
13. Byte Bashaasha bite 2
(there are youth may be some of them have dropped out at senior 4, others have dropped out at senior 5, some of these you can see them in petty business, the boda-bodas and whatever. I mean those youth, are a resource that could be mobilized. And again the programs to mobile them anyway and assist them and support them do not exist, so I think that's an opportunity that we are not capturing. )
ME: The 2010 development strategy and investment plan of the Ministry of Agriculture observed that the capacity of young people in Uganda to effectively engage in agriculture was limited by a lack of access to resources. So what is the Government of Uganda currently doing about this dilemma? The Minister of state in charge of investment, Aston Kajara, explains that 44.5 billion shillings have been extended to young entrepreneurs to encourage investment in the agricultural value chain.
16.Byte minister on youth fund not target agric
(this money is not targeting agriculture per-say it is targeting income generation for the youth, the best areas today there not only trading or boutiques, but we shall encourage the youth to identify projects such as juice extraction and other agricultural produce)
ME: The importance of Agriculture in Uganda is unquestionable. Agriculture employs 80 percent of the population and accounts for almost a quarter of the country’s total economic output. Despite this critical role, the future of agriculture remains uncertain as long as the youth consider the sector unattractive.
Juliet Mabisi, UBC Radio!