Who succeeds ageing farmers?

Agriculture is inevitable to human existence as both humans and livestock must feed.  As other nations have engaged their able bodied manpower in agriculture, PETER USMAN writes that in Nigeria the farmers have considerably aged and the young ones are not stepping in.

By Under normal circumstances, ageing is regarded as a positive and inevitable process which every human is destined to undergo in life. So whenever issues relating to wisdom and rational thinking are discussed, virtually in all human societies, a person’s age is considered a dependent variable.

In whatever way one may look at it, ageing somewhat turns out to be a source of worry whenever attempts are made to examine its impact on energy sapping occupations such as farming.

It is obvious that farming is a noble occupation and many aged farmers who are presently engaged in the occupation do not regret practicing farming. However, the questions that worry most Nigerians is that the younger generation of Nigerians no longer consider farming as a dignified work but they rather look at it as an ancient occupation.

However, this could be ascribed to the fact that most farmers in the country have nothing to show for so many years engaging in a backbreaking occupation. While most farmers have to grapple with the ever increasing demands of everyday living, others continue to struggle to meet family needs.

Many Nigerians are saying that the pitiable economic status of the average Nigerian farmers could be blamed on the hard boring work of farming which is compounded by lack of access to modern agricultural equipment, resulting to so many years of subsistence nature of farming, coupled with the amount of energy invested in it.

Statistics has shown that most farmers in the country are ageing fast and the rate of replacement is very low as youths are not ready to be engaged in agriculture. The question on the lips of many concerned citizens is that, who will succeed the ageing farmers?

It should be a thigh of concern for the present administration of President Goodluck Jonathan to ensuring that the present Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA) be implemented in such a way that it will create enabling environment for the teeming youths to be really involved in agriculture.

Recently, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has designed a means of subsidizing fertilizers, popularly known as “e-wallet” by 50 percent as a  way of encouraging farmers across the country so as to enhance productivity. If such supports and encouragement have been given to farmers previously, it would have gone a long way to reduce the suffering of the farmers to a large extent.

In many occupations such as carpentry, designing, welding, waving and professions like medicine, journalism, building among others, have readily youths available to succeed those practicing them, but the case of farming is the reverse as those who studied agriculture from the universities preferred to work in the bank rather than farm.

Some sections of Nigerians noted that Government should make agriculture attractive by providing modern farm implements to replace old ones, such as hoes and cutlasses which farmers have been using for so many years without result.

Apart from the provision of modern farm equipment, modern agriculture requires fund to succeed. Anybody venturing into modern farming need financial support to grow as it required farm inputs such as fertilizers, pesticides, insecticides, tractors, harvesters among other farm implements.

Most countries of the world that have developed their agricultural sector give loans or grants to their farmers to be able to meet the financials requirement and Nigeria government need to borrow a leaf from these countries for the nation’s agricultural sector to move forward.

Lack of mechanized agriculture has remained the major bane of agriculture development in the country as youths are complaining that the use of old farm implements should be urgently withdrawn and replaced with the modern ones. They further stated that the uses of old farm tools would make them older than their age. All these complain need to be addressed by Government to entice youth into agriculture.

While expressing their worries in an interview with newsmen in Abuja, the concerned youths said that the situation where old implements such as hoe, cutlass and axe are still being used for agricultural activities is no longer tenable in any serious economy, saying that government should modernize agriculture as it has been done and practiced in other parts of the world.

Speaking to newsmen in Lagos, the Lagos state commissioner for Agriculture, Prince Gbolahan Lawal at a midterm project review said that, the target beneficiaries of the commercial Agriculture Development project are the youths.

Having studied the situation on ground, Prince Gbolahan Lawal noted that the majority of the current farmers in the state are on the ageing side and the urgent need to make special provision for youths to be part of that project is very necessary.

In the same vein, Prince Lawal, stated that the aim of the scheme is to bring young and energetic youths into the agriculture industry by way of giving them stipends as well as accommodation to encourage them during training exercise. He also revealed that plans are on way to give the youth’s loans and land, ensuring that they practice farming.

The commissioner maintained that some of the project already embarked upon in the state by the present administration in order to achieve its agricultural development initiatives are the Agric Youth Empowerment Scheme, Rice for Job project, development and implementation of strategic food security plan from 2010 to 2015,. Third National Fadama Development project among others.

If all the states of the federation are engaged in agricultural programmes of these nature aim at enhancing agricultural productivities and more so empowering youths to prepare their mind toward succeeding the aged farmers across the nation, the fear of who would succeed the ageing farmers would not have arise.

It is therefore important that the rest states should draw their programmes to ensuring that aged farmers in the country will not be a threat to agricultural development in the country, so that as some farmers are ageing, others are succeeding them.

Recently at a national dialogue organized by the National Human Right Commission in Abuja, the Governor of Imo State, Rochas Okorocha in a paper presentation noted that no political party in the country has vision for agriculture and that is why the sector has been in the state of comatose for so many years.

He envisaged that if all the political parties in the country have a farm in every states of the federation, it would have solved a lot of problems presently on ground and the issue of Boko Haram would not have arise in the first place.

Governor Okorocha advised that agriculture should not be left in the hand of old farmers alone, but youths in the country should be encouraged to participate massively to save the sector from collapsing.

In order to facilitate food security and also ensure sustainability of agricultural production and realization of the agricultural transformation agenda of the Federal Government, the increased participation by youth in agriculture in Nigeria is necessary and vital.

It is on record that there is a compelling evidence of an ageing farmer’s population in the country which must be addressed urgently to facilitate sustainability in agricultural production. Since the average age of farmers in the country is 65 years, and if young farmers do not replace the ageing producers, the production of food within the country will be seriously compromised in the next 10-15 years.

In view of the disturbing phenomenon in which Nigeria spends huge amount of money every year on importation of food, the money that would have been used to enhance agricultural sector, government’s intervention in the agricultural sector has become imperative especially in the area of encouraging youths, making agriculture attractive to them among others.

One other way some stake holders think agriculture can be made attractive to the youth is that government should address critical challenges in the sector such as poorly developed market, poor market infrastructure, poor roads, lack of storage facilities and the dearth of reliable market information.

In recent time, many Nigerians said that use of improved farm technologies remain the major way of raising farm yield and income, thereby attract the  youth to take agriculture as an occupation while others noted that empowering youths with relevant knowledge and  required skills to upgrade their farming practices in the present competitive economy is the key.

In as much as the interest of youths in agriculture remain very low, hence the need to encourage those presently engaged in farming, have their welfare improved upon and financial assistance be giving to them to enable them continue their farming activities.

If youths must be attracted to go into agriculture massively, Government needs to provide infrastructures such as electricity, portable water and good roads in rural area as well as provision of land, capital, targeted market opportunities, information. All these will surely motivate them to succeed that ageing farmers in the country.