Making Modern Agriculture Attractive For The Youths

Modern Agriculture is an evolving approach to agricultural innovation and farming practice that helps farmers increase efficiency, productivity and produce quality. It is a term used to describe the wide type of production practices employed by farmers, by using high inputs of capital, labor, heavy usage of farm machinery such as threshers, harvesters, winnowing machine, heavy usage of technology such as selective breeding, pesticides, chemical fertilizers and insecticides.

For youths to be engaged in agriculture, it’s necessary that they obtain the highest yields possible and to get the highest economic profit possible. This will not only bring about an increase in food diversify but will also encourage the production of healthy livestock because both types of farming practices can work hand-in-hand.

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Because of growing youth unemployment, aging farmers and declining crop yields under traditional farming system, policy makers have put in place institutions that will help engage youth into modern agriculture.

Youths can be integrated into agriculture by acquiring training in modern agriculture. This could come by encouraging investors to invest into training facilities that will train youths to carry out ago-projects. For example, in Cameroon, we have the “Institut Superieur d’Agriculture et de gestion d’Obala – ISAGO”, founded to help make youths to become interested and train in modern agriculture.

This can reduce these problems of the aging agric population and increased youth unemployment to meet the sustainable development goals in agricultural production. Using modern agricultural practices will lead to:

• Increase usage of modern agricultural tools

• Having accurate information along with the engagement of the youth for better crop production.

• Encouraging the youth to start new and innovative agricultural development projects and towards making a career as agropreneurs.

Importance of Modern Agricultural Practices

• Practicing modern agriculture will enable the farmers to meet up the demand for food by the population.

• The use of modern machines can reduce the efforts of farmers and time they take to produce.

• It is also important because farmers can have access to new technology and innovations such as modern irrigation, high yielding crop seeds and many others.

• It encourages research and scientific advancements in the production of safe, sustainable and affordable food.

• Modern agriculture will help improve the living standard of farmers, increase in production and will bring about growth in the local as well as country’s economy.

Modern agricultural practices may bring about an the creation of agribusinesses, the practice of intensive and organic farming, precision agriculture, and sustainable agriculture.

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A very example of this is what the government of Nepal is doing. The “Prime Minister Agriculture Modernization Project” is out to enroll youths in agricultural production and reduce the migration of youths from rural to urban areas. The project is focused on “leaving no land fallow” and mobilizing every unemployed youth into agriculture.

By Essouma Carine Angela