HOW YOUTHS CAN USE ICT TO SUPPORT AGRICULTURE AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT?

I observe as a lot of young people today make use of ICT tools and applications in their day to day activities. The question that comes to mind for me as an agriculturist is how this can be used to improve agriculture. It is no news that many young people only see white-collar jobs as being prestigious. But then, agriculture can provide decent and gainful work too, especially when ICTs are applied to add value to the business. Young farmers are able to master ICT skills and tools, such as geographic information systems (GIS), to analyze and adjust farming practices to cope with prevailing climatic conditions, and ultimately increase profits. They also use technology to creatively and productively manage land, weather, water and other resources, develop maps of these resources and use the feedback from mapping exercises to profile and upgrade specific sites by identifying appropriate measures for planting, stocking materials and providing pest control facilities.

Young people make up a large percentage of the population in most societies. They are talented, enthusiastic and prepared to embrace existing and upcoming technologies, which is critical for boosting agriculture in particular and rural development in general. Most young people are based in urban areas, where there is high unemployment. Virtually any programme that taps into their talents, skills and abilities to introduce technologies to rural areas would be a worthwhile engagement. Contributing to the development of their communities, in turn, increases their self-esteem, and helps them to become more inspired and motivated.

The communities also benefit from the activities of the Youths through applying ICT to agriculture their efforts revitalize the food and nutrition sector, which enhances food security in more households. Their involvement in climate change adaptation boosts other aspects of environmental protection, and promotes the development.

Even at that there are challenges and some of them includes

1. Supply of energy
2. Lack of the technical know how
3. Non implementation of policies relating to youth issues by government and other service provider.
4. Lack of proper sensitization

However like any other challenge there are solutions and some of them are;

1. Youths can organize themselves into a coherent voice to lobby government, private sector and civil society.
2. Government and other concern bodies should make available accessible training programs for the youths.
3. Youths should make effort to get trained in one or two areas of ICT as it relates to agriculture.
4. Be ready to share ideas with others to encourage the use of ICT4AG
5. More research work should be done to provide alternative source of power. For instance in UGANDA a youth organization was able to come up with solar charged mobile phones for getting information to the farmers

Having said these here are a list of areas young people can tap into in providing ICT services or products to help the Africa’s agricultural sector develop to its peak;

1. The development of mobile application (apps). A mobile app is a small program that can be installed and run on a cell phone, or on a web. This could serve different purposes such as monitoring supply chains, checking meteorological data, current prices, giving agricultural advise and so on
2. Create an online presence to tackle agricultural challenges, issues and update about opportunities by opening a blog page. A blog is easy to set up and maintain. It also has Social sharing features.
3. Providing online services for farmers. Offer to help farmers with managing their ICT matters (websites, online presence, SMS, proposals etc).
4. GIS services for both new and old farmers. This aids visibility studies for agricultural development projects. It also helps farmers to have information before hand what their yields would look like.
5. Information dissemination through the social media. Don’t spend all the time chatting away on 2go, face book, twitter and the likes. Provide current and viable information for farmers and others in the agric sector. This requires lot of research but the joy of it is helping to add value to the lives of others

The world of agriculture is very vast and every youth can have a share by positioning their self in one segment or the other.

 

By OJO Olawale (Nigeria)