Why Nigerian youths shy away from agriculture ―Senator Adamu

The Chairman Senate Committee on Agriculture, Senator Abdullahi Adamu on Thursday, gave reasons youths in Nigeria still shy away from Agriculture as a means of livelihood.

He blamed this on the past experiences of farmers who have had to engage in manual methods of agriculture which is more tedious.

Senator Adamu spoke at the launch of CASE Tractor organized by Dizengoff Nigeria in Abuja to cater for the Nigerian private, public and large scale commercial farmers.

According to Adamu, lack of access to mechanized tools as a result of little or no funding as made the sector unattractive.

“Before I became a Senator, I was a farmer, being a farmer my belief based on my experience on Agriculture, the young people are not attracted to Agriculture because of what our parents have forebear to till the land manually, our children cannot do that.”

“There is nothing to attract them because of lack of access to mechanized tools due to lack of funds. We need to make the sector attractive to the young ones and the government cannot do it alone.”

He maintained that the Federal Government FG cannot solely address the situation even as he called for a Public-Private Partnership PPP with stakeholders.

Adamu noted that, “Nigeria is the best kept secret of agriculture potentials,” stressing the need for the Agro-company to put up mechanized tools that can be easily accessed by intending youths in the country.

“My first contact with Dizengoff was in 1967, when farmers are tagged as illiterates but with the array of products it is possible for Dizengoff to develop a product which can be easily accessible.

“It is not about selling, the more hands we have in Agric, the bigger the market. There is need for Public Partnership where youths can access products you have in the market. In developed worlds, these things are worked out, such can be replicated in Nigeria. What we require is expansion in market.”

On his part, the Country Manager, Dizengoff Nigeria, Antti Ritvonen affirmed that the country has many untapped agricultural potentials.

He noted that the country’s Agricultural sector would improve marginally if farmers adopt modern means in their farming methods.

“Mechanization in Nigeria I will say we are taking baby steps, there is a lot of potentials in Nigeria, like the Senator has said, that Nigeria is the best kept secret potential in Nigeria. Nigeria’s agriculture will move forward if the farmer will start to use more modern methods in their farmers, parts of it is that you will use modern tools and methods.”

“We are trying to find solutions for different sizes of farmer, solutions for small farmers. One of the solution for small farmers is this tractor service company where people can buy services for their farms and then when they don’t need it, they can use it when then need it and when there is no need there is no cost added I think that is one way to help small farmers,” he said.