During his 64th Independence Day address, President Bola Tinubu announced the convocation of a 30-day National Youth Conference, as “a platform to address the diverse challenges and opportunities confronting our young people, who constitute more than 60 per cent of our population”.
The National Bureau of Statistics and the Federal Ministry of Sports and Youth Development revealed that a youth is someone between the ages of 15 and 35 and constitute 45.46 per cent of the population, based on the 2021 nation’s population, estimated at 209.6 million.
The upcoming National Youth Conference, earlier scheduled for February 2025, presents a crucial platform to address challenges and opportunities in youth engagement with agriculture. Despite earlier initiatives like the Youth Employment in Agriculture Programme (YEAP) and N-Power Agro, there are already mixed feelings that the conference could either be a necessity, or another jamboree.
This is premised on the fact that decisions from the national conferences in the Fourth Republic, though products of necessity, were not implemented. On the other hand, those in support feel that the time for the conference is now because the country cannot continue to be pessimistic without taking drastic actions.
A 2023 report by Picodi, an international e-commerce group, the average Nigerian household spends about 59 per cent of its income on food, which sadly, is the highest in the world, in spite of the several initiatives and programmes to boost farming, but the truth is that today, many people are hungrier, as food is becoming less affordable with inflation topping 40 per cent.
Agriculture remains the largest contributor to the Gross Domestic Product at 22 per cent, and employs 36 per cent of the labour force. Regrettably, many youths and young people are running away from farming. The country needs real economic diversification. That is why agriculture should be made more attractive and be properly discussed at the confab.
FarmingFarmersFarms believes that the youth conference should hold, and that agriculture must take a front seat alongside other important issues to be discussed, and in doing this, delegates should be carefully-selected to ensure that politics and other sentiments that had stunted our development over the years, are jettisoned, in a bid to have a resourceful event.
To ensure that agriculture is made attractive to this demography, the summit should focus on key areas like well-articulated policies to increase youth participation and engagement, sustainable plans to improve youth access to farmlands and resources, capacity building with a focus on strengthening agricultural education and entrepreneurship.
Additionally, agribusiness support, which would include establishing incubation centres for young farmers, leveraging Information and Communication Technology for modern farming, through technology integration, climate-smart agriculture, more access to finance and markets, fostering entrepreneurship, job creation, and enhancing research and development.
Aligning with Nigeria’s National Youth Policy, these discussions can drive sustainable agricultural development, help address challenges, capitalise on opportunities, and drive growth in the agriculture sector, and ensure a sustainable future for youths and young farmers.
