It is time for action in Africa. We have delivered too much speeches and research papers. Let us now begin to implement those speeches and research papers to solve our problems. This is why I like the topic given to me ‘Youth in Agriculture’. It speaks to what I believe and what all of us believe; production. Production should now be at the helm of the African agenda if we want save our nations from sinking.
In order to achieve goal 1&2 of the sustainable development goals, we must be the producers of what we consume. We must be the producers of the food we eat, the clothes we wear, our foot wears, our cars, our computers etc. It does not stop there brothers and sisters, we must also be the ones constructing our roads, our parliaments, our ministerial buildings, our stadia and of course our state houses. It is only through these bold steps that would ensure economic growth, stability, job creation and food sufficiency.
Ladies and gentlemen, one of the sectors that will help us achieve the above call is Agriculture. Agriculture can solve over seventy percent of our problems but sadly we have abandoned agriculture. So as my topic today is ‘Youth in Agriculture’, I want to use this opportunity to remind us of some of the importance of Agriculture and call on us to revert to agriculture.
Colleagues, we were taught in school that Agriculture provides food. We all know the food situation today in Sierra Leone and Africa as a whole. Our citizens go to bed hungry when sixty percent of the world’s arable lands are in Africa. For us in Sierra Leone, crops can grow on almost all of our soils but we still do not have enough food. We must change this narrative by reverting to agriculture. And this cause must be championed by us as young people. Let us go back to the farms and produce for our people before we start losing them to hunger.
Secondly, we were taught in school that agriculture contributes to economic growth through export or foreign exchange. Today we import instead of exporting and this has contributed to our sinking economy negatively. As young people we must rescue our economy through mass production of agricultural products. Let us go back to the farms and produce more than enough so that we can export the surplus for economic growth and wealth creation.
We were also taught that agriculture provides jobs. But, today about seventy percent of the over two million youths in Sierra Leone are unemployed and about eight hundred thousand of that number are graduates. Why? We have abandoned agriculture. We only want to be in the offices and the offices are not enough to contain all of us. So if we want jobs, let us go back to agriculture as young people. Agriculture has the potential of creating jobs for all job seekers in Sierra Leone. This is why it is referred as to the backbone of many economies.
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