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Ruth Butaumocho
African Agenda
Zimbabwe business mogul and founder of the Econet Group, Strive Masiyiwa once remarked in one of his Facebook postings that his friend President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Akinwumi Adesina used to tell him that “Agriculture is not a mere pastime activity for the poor, but a billion-dollar industry.”
In the insightful post, the telecommunication mogul reminisced on the agricultural sector, saying that if he were a young entrepreneur starting on business, he would venture into agriculture.
“Many people make the mistake of seeing agriculture as nothing more than an activity of the rural poor, simply trying to survive. It is not, and should not be seen that way. Food alone is a multi-billion dollar industry.”
His advice has not fallen on barren land, but has been faithfully absorbed amid indications that there are discerning thousands of people-mostly young people who are taking agriculture seriously in several African countries.
Unlike yesteryear, where farming was regarded as a domain for the less educated people and individuals of lesser means, young savvy university graduates are choosing farming over white-collar jobs.
For such individuals in Zimbabwe, their efforts are being ably supported by a number of initiatives to prop agriculture in the country as Zimbabwe seeks a return to its breadbasket status.
About 57 percent of Zimbabwean women between ages 20 and 31 and 47 percent of men in the same age bracket are growing fruits such as mangoes, involved in rearing livestock such as the prolific breeders’ Boer goats, and cultivating tobacco, corn and horticulture.
President Mnangagwa has adopted policies to attract the young and educated to farming while at the same time luring back many white farmers who had relocated to Australia, South Africa and the United Kingdom following the land reform of their land about two decades ago.
Some of those recalled back home have hit the ground running and have started producing different crops, with others already exporting to different markets.
The decision by the young entrepreneurs to venture into business, could not have come at a better time for the continent that is grappling with a lot of challenges threatening food security in Africa and beyond.
The impact of climate change which continues to increase unabated global shocks upending business such as the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine, scarring effects from the Covid-19 pandemic, soaring inflation rising debt, and extreme weather is threatening the stability of food supplies across.
Meanwhile, climate pressures are adding to farmers’ woes, with extended dry periods, erratic rainfall and floods leading to crop losses and declines in yields – problems scientists predict will worsen as the planet warms.
However as threatening they may appear, these challenges would be annihilated by the new generation of farmers, who have already started jazzing up the sector with robust and progressive methods of farming.
The involvement of young people in agriculture is becoming a game changer and a bolster to sector that needs rejuvenation through innovations, technology, mechanisation and ideas from such a constituency, most of whom are from universities.
Rather than follow conventional farming methods where farming activities are aligned to the rainy season, the young Turks are working around the clock and seasons utilising different water bodies, investing in boreholes for small scale farming and irrigation on commercial activities.
Moving away from the norm has also seen the new crop of farmers planting an array of crops, intense horticulture farming and livestock production, where most upstarts are now leverage on for quick returns.
Chicken rearing, cattle fattening, rabbit keeping, egg hatching and large scale livestock production of goats and sheep are sustaining a number of university graduates, through ventures and even registered corporate enterprises.
The majority has since stopped job hunting and now spend their time in farms overseeing planting and harvesting operations at their acquired or rented pieces of land.
It is not only graduates in Zimbabwe, who have taken agriculture because of lucrative opportunities and incentives, but hundreds across Africa now believe that farming is indeed the future.
Graduates in Kenya, Nigeria, Malawi, Rwanda and several other African countries are taking agriculture seriously because they believe the sector will determine the future of the continent in employment creation and food security.
According to a 2019 report on Africa’s youth from the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, the farming sector accounts for up to 60 percent of jobs in Africa.
“Agriculture is expected to remain the main pool of employment opportunities for Sub-Saharan African youth in the foreseeable future,” the report says.
The prediction is not far off the mark, considering the interest that other continents are showing in Africa, which sits on 600 million hectares of arable land in addition to a youthful population.
Seeing the growing potential of the sector and a bastion of opportunities, several continental financial institutions are now bankrolling farming activities to insulate the continent against hunger and also promoting growth and sustenance of the sector.
The packages are being rolled out at country level. Recently the African Development Bank Group came up with an emergency package — African Emergency Food Production Facility, a short-term intervention to raise the production of wheat, maize, rice and soyabean in Africa to compensate for the supply deficit due to the conflict in Ukraine.
The plan that is expected to benefit several countries will result in the production of 37,6 million tonnes of these staple food crops, an increase of about 30 percent in local production.
The bank says through the African Emergency Food Production Facility, the African Development Bank Group continues to assist African countries to boost food and nutrition security.
In addition, the bank group will also work with fertiliser manufacturers, seed companies, commodity exchanges, large aggregators, and regional member countries to deliver 3,54 million tonnes of fertilisers and 383,875 tonnes of certified seeds to smallholder farmers during the same period.
Where possible, the programme will promote the use of innovation as well as information and communication technology platforms for the delivery of these inputs and technology to farmers.
Such innovations coming from big reputable financial institutions like the ADB bolster confidence of the young agro-entrepreneurs, while encouraging them to increase production and take farming as serious business, which is not the case at the moment.
Currently, several young farmers say they are not able to access loans from the banks, due to lack of collateral and a long farming track record.
As a result, most of them are not able to expand their farming activities, employ more people and buy modern equipment.
Stepping up the use of mechanised equipment and new technology are crucial in attracting young people — a commitment that financial institutions can make by giving those loans.
Some of the young farmers interviewed implored the Government to set up revolving funds to enable them to sustain their projects.
They say that when entrepreneurs are successful in properly using revolving funds for their businesses, money revolve into the pool and other youths can benefit.
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