Generations have passed away but agriculture remains constant.
In the olden days, one can only identify and define a farmer on the appearance of an old man with bicycle, holding cutlasses and tying his or her hoe, a basket of yam and cassava and sometimes firewood at the back of the bicycle.
For some growing children, if asked to draw a diagram of a farmer, it is a true replica of the scenario painted above. The older generation and few younger ones are naïve to the use of ICT, technology, internet of things (IoT), mobile phones and their usefulness to agriculture and related endeavors.
In the changing world, the younger generation has emerged to become digital migrants who have integrated technology into their knowledge search and practices. This is a big thing and opportunity to leverage on, in promoting the message of agriculture beyond the seen.
Knowledge is power and whatever you hear, see and touch also determines ones ability to make good decisions and influence opinions across borders. Over the years, online search has increased with young people at the top of the internet user pyramid in most countries of the world.
Concentrating on agriculture and its keywords, it is no doubt that the Google search trending over the years as agriculture and its keywords as one of the top Search Engine Optimization (SEO). It is possible to see words like agriculture is the next big game, agriculture is a goldmine, economic growth through agriculture, growing investment through agriculture, agriculture is the next oil, revolutionizing agriculture through ICT and technologies, the modern farmer and much more.
More than ever before, the focus is now on agriculture possibly because of its big role in the attainment of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly with the focus on poverty reduction, ending hunger and combating climate change. The agricultural sector, its development and sustainability aspect obviously needs a rebranding that cut across key agricultural words and value chains to suit the language of the 21st century and aid effective communication, information dissemination and ultimately, seduce young people into agriculture and flaunting the successes of older farmers.
Did you know? Using Google search engine alone to find some keywords as listed, one will get the below statistics or maybe more:
- About 499,000,000 results (0.48 seconds) Google search for Agriculture
- About 95,800,000 results (0.55 seconds) Google search for Farming
- About 85,100,000 results (0.56 seconds) Google search for Farmer
Months ago, while I was computing this analysis, I read an amazing blog post on Let Us Make Farming Famous by Anudari Enkhtur and it really got me thinking about how best youths general assumption about farmer, farming, and agriculture can be changed and remodeled to get young people attracted into the business of agriculture and to create the needed act of seduction.
One of the phrases highlighted from the blog post that excites me each time I look at it:
I have always noted, there are three businesses that never fails, what we eat, what we wear and where we stay. Of these, what we eat is most important and as youths, we should find consolation in the fact that it's only farming that is most sustainable in terms of meltdowns relative to other industries. One day, I believe we will have a global icon who is a farmer.
In another interesting article, I agreed with Alberta N.Akyaa Akosa that:
Jobs in agriculture are not mean or ordinary. People develop a sense of optimism, patience, observation, responsibility, and attentiveness among other positive values which goes a long way to help them develop and maintain positive interpersonal and intrapersonal relationships.
The tides are changing and thanks to the host of organizations, institutions, bodies, associations, the network of professional bodies and much more who are constantly ensuring that agriculture is well pronounced, well defined and well valued across countries and regions of the world.
The speech delivered at the 2016 World Food Prize, held in Des Moines, Iowa by the President of the African Development Bank the first person with an agricultural background to head a Multilateral Development Bank. He said and I quote:
Let us do all we can to transform agriculture, create new hope and opportunities for millions of kids, whose parents depend on agriculture for a living. Let us help ensure we eliminate malnutrition and stunting and build gray matter infrastructure for our world
Hence, it is high time the message of agriculture is repackaged and rebranded like the famous Food Super Hero - AGRIMAN adventure of WHYFARM where Agriculture is now Agricoolture and Agrilution.
Photo Credit: Eko Ronke