By Mark Kawalya
In many modern African societies, farming is considered a preserve of older people and something that the youth neither have the time nor interest in.
It has been the norm in many rural communities for young people to sell off inherited parcels of farm land and animals, then move to the city and engage in petty business, hoping to strike it big one day.
Although at a gradual pace, things are changing in Kenya due to agricultural innovations that are enabling farmers to monitor and predict rain patterns, control diseases, manage crops and find markets online for their produce.
According to Sriram Bharatam, the founder of a social enterprise dubbed Kuza Biashara Limited, Kenya is Africa’s silicon savannah and is bountiful with a wide range of agri-tech opportunities. “There are more than 60+ innovators, especially in the digital agriculture space alone, who have a direct presence here or through partners and there are so many innovations that are popping up,” Bharatam adds that these new innovations, have attracted a sizeable number of young people dwelling in urban settings to move back into villages and embark on agriculture over the last three years.
Sriram added that, “In just the last three years, we have seen a massive surge in the youth moving to villages to do farming by themselves. A lot of these young people have brought innovations back to the villages.” A few weeks ago, Yara East Africa, a manufacturer and distributor of farm inputs, launched a 12-week leadership academy to train micro, small, and medium-sized enterprise business owners across the country.
According to data coming in from the Ministry of Agriculture, the typical Kenyan farmer has an average age of about 60 years, slightly below the country’s life expectancy of 65 years. Young people under the age of 25 account for 60 percent of Africa’s population, according to a survey by Heifer International. For this age group to be assimilated into agriculture as a profession, there is an even greater need for technological acceleration in the sector to be rolled out.
Ronald Dianga, a young farmer using technology who decided to get his hands dirty and choose agriculture as a career path, says new solutions in the sector are making the field more attractive to young people.
