Agriculture can and should not be left behind in these digitization age. We should incorporate ICT not as an independent initiative in agricultural practices but as a core fabric enabling each of these activities. ICTs can streamline most of the challenges along the value-chains eg access to knowledge on markets, market linkages, crop management, access to financing and insurance services.
Knowledge remains one of the biggest challenge preventing modernisation of smallholder farming in Africa. By improving knowledge dissemination to these farmers, we increase their ability to be economically attractive, able to make better decisions and reduce production risks!
There is a growing demand for food, yet the young population who have the energy, diverse skills and technologies to modernize farming are not yet fully engaged in agriculture. We, the young population, have an opportunity to transform agriculture by driving technology uptake and innovation in the sector. We need to take advantage of our boredom and frustration from the current state and adopt technologies that can make us more resilient to the very challenges that have kept us away from agriculture. Interestingly, as we lower the average age of a farmer, we easily spearhead a shift from poor low-tech production to better and profitable approaches to farming. We enhance knowledge-based, skill-driven farming, become climate resilient and move to sustainable food production.
Its true that the majority of the world’s poor are farmers, and these explains why solving the poverty problem shall begin with fixing the agricultural sector especially among the small scale farmers. Poverty increases chances for poor sanitation, poor nutrition, ignorance and even reduces the human resilience to effects of global climate change, thus, there is need to first struggle to jump-start the journey out of poverty by supporting the very simple and basic source of economic development of the worlds poor, farming.We have to agree that the knowledge that fed the world population 100 years ago can not feed the current population.
The true test of belief is not a slogan “ALLAHU AKBAR” or dressing up in a certain way, the true test of our belief is living up to the core principle of our religion like not killing innocent people because life is sacred according to Islam. The Quran says whoever slay a soul it shall be as if he had slain all mankind; and whosoever save one life it shall be as if he has saved all mankind.
The essence and soul driver of true innovation is that it provides hope to people.it inspires people to dream and dream big. It excites emotions of those experiencing it to bring the best out of themselves so that they can also be counted among the few who make a difference. It’s true that the biggest gift that humankind was blessed with is the ability to innovate and better themselves.
Change comes when we wake up every day and feel the inadequacy around us. that nagging feeling that tells us that we are not enough, that we have to bring something better to add up to what we are today, to leave a mark on the face of the world that defines our existence.
The best thing about being young is the potential hidden inside us. This potential opens doors for us and hustles for us. It’s the biggest currency that the youth can trade with. Anybody will be willing to invest in us provided we clearly articulate this potential with your vision and build capacity, skill and ability around it. Basically, we have a future! Living life isn’t living in comfort but rather adjusting to new challenges every day. The only way you know you’re moving forward is by conquering each challenge you face, one at a time. It never gets easier as you move forward, it only gets familiar.
You are young today, and old tomorrow, then helplessly aged in a few years. What have you invested for your future generation? Not wealth but in terms of values, principles and virtues. What is your legacy , or your contribution to being human and being African…
We have trained our eyes to look out for our next victim of manipulation and coercion, so that we can take advantage of them, and toss to their ignorance! – Yet our fore fathers lived with the virtues for ages, without losing grip of the priceless virtues for posterity.
With all the excitement of the youth, and hyping of entrepreneurship to look like a one hit and run jackpot, there needs to be a voice to calm the hype around entrepreneurship and tell the true story. The perseverance it calls for. The resilience and persistence it calls for and the consistence one needs to nurture a business. There needs to be an alternative voice to tell the youth that, securing funding and investment for your idea is never a breakthrough but just a sign of people’s confidence in your idea. It’s just a sign of the willingness of the people to take the risk with you. But as the saying goes, people will want to ride with you in the limousine but not in a bus once your limousine breaks down. It’s the start of building a foundation of the Eifel tower in the murky, swampy and unstable land. You are the the bearer of the vision, guard it amid all the excitement!
Over time the human beings have learned the art of destruction in the name of building. We have learnt how to destroy the beautiful free gifts of nature and perfected recreating them to suit individual ownership, so that others can struggle to pay for a pie of nature. Lets look at what is happening to our environments, our ecosystem is under siege.
