Agro-tech start-ups useful but won’t remove youth job crisis

Automation is removing people from jobs by the thousand each year, but it is also the repository of hope for those elbowed out by robots. Can they, perhaps, remain in agriculture via smart phone apps?

Experts say that, for more young people to engage in agriculture, the government and other stakeholders must invest more in modern technologies that make farming easier and more productive.

An authoritative study shows that, despite the availability of a rich range of agritech innovations that could propel African farmers to profitability, only 23 per cent of the continent’s youth engaged in agriculture use any form of agricultural technology – and this largely owing to a lack of financing and training.

Initiatives meant to bridge the gap and get more youths into farming are therefore of immense utility and relevance.

The study, as conducted in 11 countries including Tanzania, entailed responses from 30,000 young people and collected insights from hundreds of farmers and agricultural organisations.

The researchers tried to shore up the view that, in that agriculture is still stuck in long-gone eras, the tendency to alienate young people mostly drawn towards digital technology and related inventions by and large lives on.

In reality, the issue isn’t the hoe versus the smart phone but harvests versus regular wages. That is the tone cultivated in a new report by Heifer International, based on the survey.

The report asserts that farmers on the continent are missing out on technological innovations that could supercharge agriculture with opportunities for the youth.

The reason for this worry is that all technological uplift enables higher and wider levels of production, and therefore such uplifts of volume and ease of access often lead to sharp drops in pricing.

Without actually disowning the potential that technology holds for farming, the idea that new investments are needed to stimulate access to innovations and encourage African youth to consider taking up opportunities in farming is an exaggeration.

There are people in age groups other than youths who are taking up agriculture by the thousand each year, as a way of stabilising their savings instead of depositing the cash in banks, as this way it grows and becomes a source of steady income.

Like most other sectors, agriculture needs a disposition to plough earnings back into it, or use farms as an auxiliary source of family income.

Sadly, many youths are given to taking money as usable cash, instead depending on loan financing and unavoidably ending up with piles of non-payable debts.

We all need to appreciate the fact that the more mechanised agriculture is, the less it offers real jobs. This is to underscore the need to front an expertly prepared ‘mix’ of workable options as endeavours for our young people to venture into – and not just dangling particular sectors and sub-sectors.