‘Make agriculture attractive to the youth’

Making the call in an interview with newsmen at the just concluded 8th National Agricultural Show at Tudun Wada in Nasarawa State, the Executive Director, Youth Programme on Agriculture and Entrepreneurship Development (Y-PAED), Mr. Peter Adams Eloyi, said government must make meaningful investment in agriculture to generate employment for the youth so as to ensure […]

Making the call in an interview with newsmen at the just concluded 8th National Agricultural Show at Tudun Wada in Nasarawa State, the Executive Director, Youth Programme on Agriculture and Entrepreneurship Development (Y-PAED), Mr. Peter Adams Eloyi, said government must make meaningful investment in agriculture to generate employment for the youth so as to ensure sustainable development.
“Agriculture is not attractive to the youth because of challenges such as poor funding and lack of enabling environment. So, government must invest meaningfully in agriculture to remove these obstacles and make it attractive and profitable,” Mr. Eloyi maintained.
Other challenges, which he described as disincentives in the agricultural sector that needed to be urgently addressed, include high cost of machinery and equipment, low yield per hectare, high risk and the Land Use Act.
The executive director also said that access to finance by young farmers should be improved upon, adding that the issue of collateral and high interest rate also needed to be tackled.
Mr. Eloyi advised government to enlist youth in commercial agriculture and expand the youth farm programme to accommodate more young farmers across the country.
He also called on the government to remove constraints in farm inputs availability and give adequate subsidy to the farmers to assist them in improving their output and income.

‘Make agriculture attractive to the youth’