Editorial: Youths and agriculture

One of the first preoccupations of German colonial adventures in Cameroon was the emphasis on agriculture as a source of sustaining millions of that country’s hungry populations back at home. On that perception, agriculture was seen as a glorious activity for human existence.

No doubt therefore why the Germans opened up huge plantations in Cameroon in view of the potentials available, and at the abrupt end of their colonial adventures through their defeat in the world wars, Cameroon today thrives largely on an agriculture-based economy, an outline of which the departing colonialists left behind.

The Cameroon Development Corporation, CDC, stands firm and tall as a verifiable case of our accomplishment in the agricultural sector. So, if today the government is laying emphasis on youth involvement in agriculture, we can only add our voice to this policy.

We are convinced that it can solve our unemployment problem, but we do so with a lot of doubt based on a number of negative factors in our overall perception of agriculture as it concerns the youth, on the one hand, and government’s commitments to the letters of this policy on the other.

We agree to a certain extent with those who cynically hold that agriculture is not glorious because of the negative perceptions that have been piled on this sector, mostly by the youth themselves, for whom this policy of youth employment through agriculture has been conceived.

In the thinking of many youths, the farmer is always seen as someone ever like their parents, whom they have watched from their childhood, tilling the soil and engaged in very hard labour on the fields but with very little to show for this.

Having seen their aging parents go through such traumatic experience in agriculture, using very basic, if not semi primitive tools, the youth simply do not see any future in agriculture. They are forced to direct their attention to urban areas in search for employment and better life.

The rural youths see no reason why they should not enjoy the same city life with their peers with whom they graduated from village, who happened to be the children of rich parents, and who are further sponsored into schools abroad. They watch their peers coming back home in affluence. They consider themselves abandoned to the soil.

The negative effect of this is alarming increase in urban population and an escalation of criminality.

Having said all this, the truism is that agriculture remains the locomotive that pulls our economy as well as those of many African countries. We Cameroonians, blessed with fertile land and favourable climatic conditions, cannot afford to overlook the plight of our youth.

According to the Africa Economic Outlook report published last year, jointly by the African Development Bank, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the agric sector employs as much as 60% of Africa’s labour force. But despite this glowing prospect, low productivity affects the continent’s gross domestic product GDP.

The good news is that despite this grim statistics, the World Bank sees a brighter future in African agriculture, and African agriculture and agric business is worth one billion US dollars by 2030.

But for that to happen, there must be improvements in electricity and irrigation, coupled with smart business and trade policies. On the energy sector much is being done to meet this demand.

If the government is committed to engaging the youths in the agric sector, the World Bank seems to have laid bare the road map. Government should seek World Bank cooperation in this sector.

Youths should be given the necessary assurance that agricultural conditions will be made conducive to youth participation in agriculture. Such assurance should be highlighted in policies that wipe out that image of poor, ragged and weather-beaten farmers that was the traumatic experience of their parents. Our agriculture needs modernization beyond rhetorics.