I come from a family or farmers. For those who know me, this is definitely hard to believe considering, I am not the "agricultural" type. That's because I don't actually know how to farm, I just come from a family of them. Almost all of my family lives in Cameroon in a rural village and farms for a living. At least, they are supposed to. This is the dilemma. The new generation of children who are at the brink of their adult life do not want to be farmers. They have all moved into the city seeking jobs. But the problem is, there are none. So many of them have either completed school and have useless degrees or have dropped out of school in hopes of finding a job. Either way, they're almost all unemployed. I'm not sure who should take the blame for this issue, but I do know that if I grew up in an agricultural community and country without many job prospects, I would probably focus on farming.
Apparently, the King of Buganda, Kabaka Ronald Mutebi II, agrees with me! There is a great deal of idleness among youth in developing African nations, who move from their rural hometowns to the urban city centers, in search of jobs that don't exist. Once they realize they won't be getting employed anytime soon, they stay in the centers and usually turn to a life of idleness or crime.
I had a friend in Kampala, who realized the gold in the rural areas and hired workers to farm for him! It was a lazy, but smart move.
However, considering today's food crisis, the lack of farmers in predominantly agricultural societies is alarming. It makes no sense for countries with soil meant for growing, who were exploited by the West centuries ago, to be relying on the West to export items that they are equipped to grow themselves in abundance!
I think a healthy medium for youth uninterested in getting their hands dirty on the farm, would be for them to explore scientific ways to make farming easier.
5.01.2008
I Couldn't Have Said It Better, Myself!
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agriculture,
cameroon,
Education in Africa,
food crisis,
I Couldn't Have Said It Better Myself,
Preach,
Uganda,
unemployment,
Urban Youth
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