Youth in Agriculture: Kakamega County
At Kings Agricultural Services, one of the services we offer is Agricultural Value Chain Development. This is a service that's tailored for those interested in investing in the production, processing, or distribution of any agricultural value chain. That includes conducting market surveys.
Such was the case with a client who wanted to concentrate on the market in Kakamega County. We did it some two weeks ago, and what we found on the the ground largely corroborated the outcomes of the desktop research. The findings were shocking, but not really surprising:
Kakamega imports a large percentage of its food. It is only self-sustainable in maize, and even that is not always the case. All other categories of food are mainly imported.
Most of the fruits come from Uganda, while vegetables are primarily from Kisii and the Rift Valley. Some come from as far as Tanzania. That is despite the fact that this county has all the conditions necessary for it to be self-sustainable.
According to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, more than 2,200 of its 3000 Sq. Km area of land is arable and receive an average of 2000 mm of rain annually. And a rich river system that includes the mighty Yala. To cap it all, the county has a high number of youthful people. This is estimated to be at least 400,000 individuals in the 18-35 age bracket.
So we dug a little deeper to understand why the county is not producing its own food. We visited a number of farmers, particularly in Iguhu area. All of them were old men and women, in their 50s or older. We sat down with one of these old farmers, a man in his mid 60s. We also consulted a female seller of food products. Also consulted were a number of young men and women.
These were our 3 main findings with regard to why Kakamega imports so much food despite having all the resources it needs to feed its own population:
- A cultural problem in that many youths would rather go into the boda boda business than farm, in pursuit of quick money. The attitude towards farming is generally negative. This is a huge factor in the low production levels
- A technical problem since many young people have no training in modern and sustainable agricultural techniques
- There is an issue with the land tenure system. Some old men are unwilling to hand over land ownership to their children over the fear that it will be sold off.
These are the opinions of a few people and is in no way an empirical research. However, they are a hint of the issues in the county, and some of the things that should be looked into to solve the problem at hand and get youth into agriculture:
- There is a need for programs aimed at changing attitudes towards the profession. This should especially be done in schools starting from the formative years and the momentum maintained throughout
- Beyond that, people need to be schooled on the right farming techniques and other various ways of tapping into this vast industry. This should be specifically targeted at the youthful population
- Finally, issues to do with land tenure systems should be addressed in a an all-inclusive manner involving all relevant stakeholders including local authorities. Possible approaches include public fora on land tenure systems in the affected areas.
Our sojourn was soon done, and it was time to come back to the city. We took a boda boda to the booking office. Along the way, the young rider joked that, "If all roads leading into Kakamega were to be sealed off, we would starve to death".
We laughed and laughed and laughed, knowing fully well the grains upon grains upon grains of truth in his joke.
Next stop:
Buuri Sub-County, Meru County.
.