Are Youth Interested in Agriculture? – Commentary

The average age of our farmers is steadily rising which will have serious consequences on our food bill, food security, heritage, etc. The key to reversing this situation is to create opportunities for new entrants into agriculture but very often at launching agriculture events the audience is always bombarded with the shout that the youth are not interested in agriculture (for the sake of this article I am referring to farming).

But how do we measure the interest of young persons? Is the average age of farmers a suitable determinant of interest? Are we as a nation stressing on indicators that produce a foggy picture?

We must be clear when we speak of agriculture and youth involvement in it because we tend to echo the perceptions of a few misguided people. Agriculture is misrepresented as a demeaning activity whilst other careers are praised yet agriculture is a science and encompasses every other earth science known to man and we must approach farming as an application of that science.

How have our education systems prepared us to take advantage of the opportunities that stem from agriculture? What has been the focus of the high school and tertiary institutions in Dominica? Have they looked at training future farmers or are we, as a people, still focused on overpopulating our society with lawyers and other professionals because we assume that they are more meaningful professions? When punishment at schools meant labouring in the hot 2 o’clock Dominican sun to tend to a garden can we actually turn now and blame the youth from shunning agriculture when we are the root cause of it all? When the informal education of our rural population consists of negative perceptions towards the “hand that feeds us” is it any surprise when there isn’t a mass of persons willing to pick up the mantle when all seems bleak. The negativity showcased in our media, in relation to agriculture and in particular bananas has only served to portray one picture to our nation: doom and gloom. We must be reminded that banana is only one crop among thousands. What would it have hurt our past policy makers to give any other agricultural commodity similar attention? Where would our pineapples, dasheen or yams be if 20 percent (20%) of the total amount of money that was allocated to bananas, over the past 30 years, was redistributed to develop a production and marketing chain similar to that of bananas?

I dare to say that it isn’t the interest of young persons that has caused the average age of our farmers to steadily rise over the past 30 years but the ineffectiveness of policy makers to create the enabling environment that would allow youth to develop their interests, ideas and skills. In particular credit and land issues, two of the major hindrances for farmers, have not been addressed in any significant manner that warrants mention. Young persons are still bombarded by the old criteria when they approach financial institutions to make investments in agriculture. What has happened to thinking outside the box? What has happened to being innovative in our credit policies? It seems that our financial institutions have not kept up to date with world changes as it relates to credit financing. Intellectual property and entrepreneurship capabilities should be as important a need as an acre of land when Agri-business investment is being considered. Has Dominica failed young persons through its inability to develop and implement policies that would act as incentives? Measures should be put in place to allocate idle lands to interested young persons. There should also be a conscious effort to develop and implement land use policies that would encourage agriculture instead of seeing our most fertile lands being cleared for housing developments. Farming cannot operate in a vacuum and the necessary steps must be taken to not only create the enabling environment but also sustain it.

Nevertheless there are still small pockets of young persons who have survived the onslaught heralded at agriculture by the preceding generations of “thinkers.” Young people who have properly analysed what it means to be a farmer and take pride in producing quality food so all shall eat They have taken the initiative and have approached agriculture as both a science and business, adapting new innovations and technologies to our local environment. Never has there been such a level of activity among young persons in agriculture. The Young Farmer’s Program of the Ministry of Agriculture has provided young persons with a small window of opportunity to see light at the end of a tumultuous tunnel but a lot more needs to be done. Initiatives like this should be sustained and supported by both the public and private sector. There should be continuity when the involvement of youth in such a dynamic and important sector is as important to national development as any stadium or international airport. This is especially true when Dominica, as a nation, is focusing its attention on sustainable development, eco-tourism and organic agriculture. It is clear and evident that today and tomorrow Dominica’s Agriculture needs Youth.

“We can’t solve problems by using the same level of thinking we used when we created them” Albert Einstein

Delroy Nesta Williams
General Secretary
National Association of Youth in Agriculture