Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Getting the youths on board; a daunting task.

The Kenya agricultural shows are perennial events in every big towns in Kenya. They are events organized by the ministry of agriculture aimed at bringing together key players in the agricultural sector - manufactures, insurance service providers, extension service providers, banks and many others who are either directly or indirectly linked to the agricultural sector. This is to help farmers know who is who in the sector and where to get help for any agricultural problems. Farmers also get know their fellow farmers with success stories and market linkages to their farm products.
I am attending this years Mombasa Agricultural show and with regards to the title of this post, we have to unleash all the potential we have if we are to succeed. The turn out at the event who seem to be interested in the exhibition of the Ministry of Agriculture is largely comprised of the old people and the youths whom we are really striving to woe into farming are interested in leisure-related exhibition. I was flabbergasted at the crowd I saw at the exhibition desk of Kenya Breweries. If only this could be witnessed at the agricultural exhibition desk, I'd say we're nearing the promised land; land where the young energetic people use their energies to feed the land's people.
There is therefore need to still look at ways of making this farming business more interesting where terms like toiling will be history. We need to look at what interests the youths more then incorporate it into agriculture. For instance the exhibitions which are attracting youths are those that play trendy music, it would interesting to incorporate such an item between agricultural announcements so that for those who come to listen to the music end up getting the message all together. There is need to look look for more interesting things and incorporate them into the sector as a bait for catching the youths   

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