Cynthia
Mosunmola Umoru is a young Nigerian lady passionately driving the beauty in
agriculture in her home country. Proud to be a farmer, she’s got her swag –
twitting @PrettyFarmer on her sleek tablet.
Cynthia
produces food to feed her nation, and delights in inspiring other young persons
to take up a profession in agribusiness.
Her
company, Honeysuckle Ventures, distributes livestock produce to fast food
companies and restaurants in Lagos and one of her farms is used for research
and training of young farmers in the agri-food sector.
For
Cynthia, it is critical that women and the youth focus less on the drudgery of
agriculture and rather focus on the opportunities therein for financial
independence and the nutritional security of families.
“If
people are concerned about the quality of the food that they eat, they should
be concerned about the quality of the produce that comes out of the farm…it
means that we need to be involved” she noted. “Now if as women, as young people
we love to eat, wear cloths, we love to spend money, then I think it’s critical
that we begin to look closely at the agric sector”.
Cynthia
inspires her peers not only in Nigeria but others of Africa to venture
agriculture, a profession often perceived to be unattractive to today’s African
youth.
“I
think that people need to begin to look at the brighter side and then
appreciate agriculture for what it is – a wealth creating platform. This is one
sector that singly is capable of creating total employment across its value
chain”, she added.
In
Ghana, the government’s Youth in Agriculture Programme (YIAP) was established to
increase employment opportunities and incomes, encourage entrepreneurship, and
upscale food production.
With
the average national farmer age at 55 years, the programme seeks to increase
productivity in agricultural sector by tapping into the energy of the youth who
compromise about 30percent of Ghana’s active population.
According
to National Programme Coordinator, Alhaji Adam Mahama, the Ghanaian youth are
interested in venturing agriculture but financial constraints remain major
obstacle.
“My
office, on daily basis, is filled with applications, proposals from youth,
university graduates – both male and female – who are interested in going into
agriculture but I’m constrained by funding”, he stated.
Alhaji
Adam estimates that a minimum of Gh₵10,000 ($5,000) is needed to support a university
graduate to be able to take off into full-time agriculture, but such funding is
not readily available.
He
however does not subscribe to the establishment of a fund by government to be
accessed by the youth “because immediately government takes too much interest
in funding such things, people don’t want to be independent”.
Hence,
government should provide the farming inputs whilst the private sector is
engaged in providing financial packages for such agricultural ventures, he
opined.
“If
a package is made in such a way that they take the money from the banks that
they can use and pay back to the banks [and] account to the banks, then they’ll
learn to be independent and good private sector”, noted Alhaji Adam.
Private
sector agribusiness players believe the public-private partnerships are
important to drive young people into agribusiness but this, they say, must be
devoid of politics.
Prince
Obeng Asante, Deputy Managing Director of Ghana Nuts Company, says concepts geared
towards youth employment must move from a political platform to a
pseudo-business organization for the private sector to buy into them.
“It
should be partnership which is built on rock, not on sand which can easily be
washed away when the political season comes to an end”, he observed.
Ghana Nuts
is a leading agro processor,
manufacturer and exporter of a gamut of edible oils, animal feed input
materials and Shea Butter.
The company has been supporting the
agricultural project under the National Service Scheme and recently received
4,000 bags of yellow maize from the NSS Wenchi Farm to produce feed for the
local poultry industry.
The NSS project is making some inroads with
an expected harvest in excess of eight metric tonnes of maize by end of 2012
from the combined 2,120 acres it is farming in five regions.
It is early days yet to ascertain what
percentage of the young national service personnel engaged in the NSS agric
project would opt for full-time ventures in farming or agribusiness at the end
of their service.
But
Prince Obeng says there is the need to critically show young people that
agriculture could provide a dynamic and productive future for them.
Young
people who see the profitability in agriculture will naturally move into the
sector, he said.
“The
cost of production vis-Ã -vis the revenue has been the major bottleneck; the guy
is spending Gh₵1,000 per hectare and the revenue coming from it is Gh₵900, why
do you think the youth will be there?” queried Prince. “But if today we say
that you spend Gh₵1,000 but your revenue is Gh₵2,000, so the [profit] margin is
Gh₵500, I tell you even the dead will resurrect and go into agriculture”.
To
set the agenda right, Cynthia Mosunmola Umoru, who is currently a Youth
Consultant to the African Union Commission, has emphasized the direct engagement
of the youth in agricultural policy formulation whilst providing avenues for
the youth to access mentors and role models to success in agribusiness.
Already,
youth in agriculture is one of the driving issues on which the United Nation’s
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) focuses its work.
“Granted
that there are a lot of countries benefiting from oil and natural resources,
but most of the countries in Africa today are primarily agriculture-based
communities, so when you think about the future of agriculture you should start
with the source which is the young people of Africa”, said James Tefft, Senior
Policy Officer, FAO Regional Office for Africa.
He
wants the subject of young people in agriculture to be embedded within national
policies in the implementation of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture
Development Programme (CAADP) of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development
(NEPAD).
He
says investments in the agricultural sector should be about the people and integrating
youth in agriculture is essential in addressing the demographic challenges.
“The
policy framework in Ghana with respect to METASIP exists but we need to get
into the specifics of how these partnerships between public and private actors
actually take place… we need the young people, civil society [to be] engaged in
the process. So to move forward, we need to move into the specific of the
dialogues at very decentralized levels”, said James Tefft.
The
Ghanaian government developed the Medium Term Agriculture Sector Investment
Plan (METASIP) to implement the Food and Agriculture Sector Development Policy
(FASDEP II) over the medium term 2011-2015.
Whilst
expecting agricultural policies to be youth-centered, there is the potential
for women and young people to strategically plug into the sector by “unlocking
their minds and view agriculture as a business; it is not just about farming
and tilling the soil – there is processing, packaging, distribution, cold
storage, marketing – the opportunities across its value chain is enormous”,
said Cynthia Umoru.
Transforming
mindsets are the core values of the AgroMindset Organisation, which is educating
a new generation of entrepreneurial minded agriculturists in Ghana.
“Our
idea is using the bottom-up approach to transform youthful thinking from fork
(state of consumption) to field (state of activity and productivity), and so we
seek to introduce the concept of agric entrepreneurship to young people right
from childhood”, said Founding Director, David Asiamah.
The
Organization seeks to erase negative perceptions about farming, showcasing that
it can bring people great wealth and prosperity, through strategies like organising the Agro
Summit and Agro Tourism events, embarking on outreaches, undertaking Green projects
and promoting agribusiness, innovation and entrepreneurship.
“We
have visited over 5000 young people in basic schools and our meetings attract
interested students and industry experts to learn and share ideas at the same
time churning them into entrepreneurs”, he said.
Without
a clear policy strategy for engaging this rising group of rural youth, Africa’s
leaders and the development partners that work with them risk creating an economic
time bomb for their successors, warned David Asiamah.
Story
by Kofi Adu Domfeh
A
seven year old boy has allegedly shot dead his three year old sister at Asuoyeboah,
a suburb of Kumasi.
The
mother of the two kids, whose name is given only as Ama, a pure water seller, is
presently emotionally unstable to speak. 
