The Youth in Agriculture making moves
In line with vision 2030, the youth are doing exceedingly well in their individual capacity as they take part in various agricultural projects. Sadly, it took years them to actually appreciate agriculture as a highly rewarding job. There has always been that mentality that agriculture was primitive and it was a dirty job so many desisted from taking part. In as much as we might not all agree on this, a shift in this mentality was greatly influenced by the deteriorating economy which saw many companies closing leaving a hoard of graduates with nowhere to go as the ’employment sector’ faced demise closure. The once praised degrees became useless. They were no longer relevant and it needed someone to drop everything and hustle like a dropout. The nation was now looking for young leaders who were going to create jobs for themselves and others around them, and agriculture presented such an opportunity. One institution, Star Leadership Academy, opened its doors in January 2019 for young leaders who knew they got what it takes to change the economic status of Zimbabwe through agriculture. The academy created such an environment where it trained young leaders in agriculture to take charge and contribute towards the transformation of the Zimbabwe’s economy and this gave birth to many lucrative businesses.
However, the concern is now about where to get land. While to some, this is their greatest hindrance others have taken it to the backyard and are making huge profits from tomatoes, onions, green mealies etc. Poultry, rabbit farming, acquaculture among other livestock projects that doesn’t require much land and we at vaMudhumeni has always discussed these projects under our $100 budget project series. While some expect the downsizing of farms by the government to give them a chance to own land, this is not something that can be done overnight and the youth still needs to find ways to be productive.
By Lynette Simango