Why we need to invest in Youth Agriculturalists

Agriculture is Uganda’s biggest employing sector, with over 70% of Ugandans engaged in the sector. The sector contributes over 25% to the total gross domestic product (GDP).

However, the biggest percentage of those engaged in the sector are elderly men and women, whose production capacity and energy cannot sustain the sector. The energetic and Uganda’s largest population composition, the Youth have a negative attitude towards the sector. Most of them regard it to be for the “illiterate and less educated” elders.

The youth engaged in agriculture are less than 20% of the total labor force in the sector. This has affected food production, contributing so much to the problem of youth unemployment. In Uganda for instance, 400,000 students graduate every year from the various higher institutions of learning. Of all these, only about 90,000 get formal employment in the public and private sectors. So where do the 310,000 of the graduates end?

The government of Uganda in the 2013/14 FY budget introduced the Youth Livelihood Programme fund, with an aim of giving startup capital to youth groups to set up businesses. Because of lack of skills, experience and poor management among these youth groups, most of these projects have failed or sometimes stalled.

Another challenge is the poor funding of the agricultural sector. The government of Uganda allocates only 3% of the total national budget to agriculture. This has affected the growth and expansion of the sector, with limited or no mechanization. Because of the uncertainties in agriculture, many people especially the youth have deserted the sector, thinking it is not a sector worthy giving time.

Cases of rural urban migration have increased among the youth, with most of them even selling off what they have in the rural areas just in search for “better paying jobs”. The question would however be “What is a better paying job? It is just a theoretical thinking. Most of these youth after failing to get the jobs have resorted to engage in betting, crime activities, illegal activities and others.

So why advocate for Agriculture?

Agriculture is one sector that anyone can undertake, it requires no experience, a common requirement for one to get a job in Uganda, agriculture can be undertaken alongside other activities. Today, we see a number of corporate people undertaking agriculture as a second source of income and livelihood.

At Youth Agriculturalists Fraternity, we believe that, leaving other factors constant, agriculture is the key source of employment for our youth generation.  We are taking it to ourselves to educate the youth the value of agriculture and why they need to look forward to engaging in this sector other than looking for jobs, which are not enough to accommodate them all.

Government and other bodies need to invest in all youth that are engaged in agriculture. When these youth register success from this undertaking, they will serve as an inspiration to their fellow youth who would otherwise regard agriculture as a no go sector.

Together, through agriculture, we can end youth unemployment, poverty, over dependence, and above all, eliminate hunger in our country and Africa at large.

This blog post is part of the GCARD3 Youth blogpost applications. The content, structure and grammar is at the discretion of the author only.

This blog post was initially published in one of Uganda's top news papers: The Daily Monitor. You can also find it on Masereka's Youth Agriculturalists Fraternity-(YAFRA) website.