According to FAO, the number of young people (aged 15 to 24) is expected to increase to 1.3 billion by 2050, accounting for almost 14% of the projected global population.
As we all know, the world is now getting more advanced in terms of modernization, use of technology, new practices and much more. Agriculture is going into dim light as most youths are not really interested in low wages or low-value income but in opportunities that would fetch them quick money, they also prefer to be self-employed these days. Nevertheless, we still have youth that are interested in agriculture though they are few, youth decisions to engage in work can be influenced by their environment.
The involvement of youths in any sector signifies strength, performance, and attracts ability. pervading fresh blood into any system makes it more productive and dynamic. Youths have the capacity and desire to introduce new innovations in the system, adjust to change, take risks whenever necessary and adopt suitable risk managing strategies. This makes the system profitable and sustainable. Many youths these days encounter various challenges such as lack of capital, lack of basic agricultural amenities which are urgent needs.
Personally I am not so interested in going to work on the farm, but I believe there are a lot of ways to support agriculture without working on a farm yes the youth today are more into the tech world like IT and Programming, this can also be channelled into agriculture. Taking agriculture to a whole different level is my Focus, agriculture can be technology-based too just like every other sector, the only disadvantage is the manual labour, most farmers might lose their jobs, yet there is a solution.
I believe the farmers can be trained and taught how to handle basic technical tools, the youth can come in, in this aspect, by training the farmers and teaching them how to use the know-how, we have different fields of agriculture that doesnt necessarily involve the dirty aspect of the farm ( most youths do not fancy this), yes the world is changing and everyone is getting more civilized and educated, they would rather work in an office as a customer service agent than do a dirty job at the farm, nevertheless as I mentioned earlier, there are the different focus in the Agric world, you can work as a researcher, a consultant or an agricultural analyst, yes in the office but sometimes you might need to visit the farm for data collection.
I would like to remind youths today that agriculture is the future of the world and it lies in the hands of this and the future generations, the way we handle it now depends on how sustainable it would become for the future, take a moment and look back at everything around you, its nature, wildlife and Ecosystem, we can definitely not live without it.
Picture credit: Plantheus