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| Women in a farm somewhere in Edo State. |
The calls for a renewed interest in agriculture is
not a new thing to Nigerians, the federal government, state government and
public figures have made this call and have sometimes described it as the only
way out of the single oil economy that we find our nation in today.
The position of the new government of Edo State is
no different from that of the government at the federal level as both seem to
be calling for a renewed interest in agriculture amongst the people. The people
of Edo State have practised farming for centuries before now and in most cases,
Edo people have relied on old and outdated farming techniques to produce food
for themselves and to make very little quantity available for sale. This is the
reason why the practise of farming in Edo State is on a serious decline. Accept
it or not, as you read this, fewer lands are being cultivated, fewer animals
are being reared and fewer people are undertaking farming as a fulltime job
every day in Edo State.
Most of
the old farmers who were, as it seems.
The “Masters” of the old farming practise are now well retired and out
of service. These veterans of agriculture in Edo State now rely on aids
provided by their children who may be struggling with one white collar job or
the other in the city or outside the country. The questions now are; why are
our youths running away from the agricultural legacy laid down by their
parents? “the answers are several, but each answers all narrow down to the fact
that, farming is no longer an attractive, lucrative or competitive alternative
to the white collar jobs which are scarcely available in our cities today.
Farming have fallen from the once exalted position which it enjoyed to a
position of neglect and pariah, and this is no fault of the generations of
today, the fact that pasts generations kept relying on old, outdated and
unsustainable farming practise are enough reasons for the present generation
who are now well familiar with the “mechanics and automotive” ease of getting
things done, to isolate themselves from the conservative and backward culture
of manual farm labour and the various inefficient local farming methods
practised by our predecessors .
How then can we bring about a renewed interest in
agriculture amongst our younger generations to ensure that our farms do not go
into extinction in Edo State?
These are my recommendations for the Edo State
Government:
1. Begin
to facilitate the adoption of modern farming techniques by providing these
equipments and machineries and training the farmers on how to operate them.
This could be achieved through a Public Private Partnership between the State
Government and interested investors in the banking sector. Agricultural
equipment renting centres can then be made available in major farming
communities in Edo State. And the Government may also need to partner with
Agricultural Equipments and Farm Machines providers, to establish maintenance
facilities and to train and transfer this knowledge to our youths.
2. Engagement
in wide reaching sensitization campaigns, which would be aimed at changing the
mindsets of our youths about farming. This could be achieved through the use of
the main stream medias, the social media, and the organization of “catch them
young” campaigns in our secondary schools and higher institutions. The
campaigns should be able to bring to the awareness of our youths the facts
that, agriculture is a lucrative and prestigious undertaking when done using
the available modern farming techniques and the various state of the art
innovations in agriculture.
3. Enact
agriculture friendly policies which would encourage even the laziest person to
want to go into farming. Examples of such policies are: creation of an
agricultural scholarship scheme for youths who are already engaged in farming
but are interested in improving their knowledge by learning new farming
practices abroad, such policies could also include the provision of financial
grants or interventions for farmers who are in urgent need of such assistance
to improve on their already established farms. In terms of policies there are
so many things the government can do to attract our youths to go back into
agriculture.
4. Creation
of a low interest loan scheme for farmers
with unique and bankable prospects. The reason why most farmers in Edo
State do not engage in large scale farming is because in most cases they cannot
afford a bigger farm, so providing such persons with a low interest loan to
expand their already established farms or to undertake a new farm project. This
would go a long way to encourage others . the loan could also be in the form of
the provision of technical assistance and the service of farm machines during
the planting season to be paid for after harvest.
5. Attract
customers and investors for our farm products, Edo State Government can achieve
this through the facilitating bilateral trade agreements on the export of farm
produce with other countries. That way any farmer in Edo State can become a
exporter of farm produce through these agreements, Government could also
organize media campaign aimed at attracting both local and foreign investors to
the availability of high quality raw materials from farms in Edo State.
6. Create
processing mills, silos and factories. To help reduce the stress that farmers
often go through in processing their products locally, Government can sensitize
farmers on modern processing techniques and provide state of the art processing
and storage facilities that would ensure that no farmer from our farming
communities would have any reason to complain of his/her products getting
spoilt or expired due to the ineffective local processing and storage
techniques.
Our youths are naturally innovative and creative and
not having them in the agricultural scene for all this times have been a big
loss for agricultural development in Edo state. If our youths can be brought
onboard the agricultural train in Edo State then we would see a lot of
improvements and ground breaking achievements being achieved within a short
period of time.
