By sydney o. Madukwem, 07069123994
Food is fundamental to human and animal existence. From time immemorial, our forefathers placed high premium on the cultivation of the soil for livelihood. Little wonder, a man was adjudged wealthy and respectable only by the size of his barn, the pyramids of cassava tubers he could harvest. He could feed his household and extended family and still had surplus to sell. It was a pride to be identified and called a farmer.
In those days, farming was not mechanized but at a subsistence level. The preponderance of labour force was in-house- the children. The youth assisted their parents as a matter of duty in farm work. Farming then was a collective responsibility. From clearing the bushes, burning, planting, weeding and harvesting, parents counted enormously on the support and contribution of their own children. Every family or household could feed itself, sell surplus and reserve seedlings for the following season’s farming.
Fundamentally, farming was taught part of discipline and every child was taught that there is no food for a lazy man and a lazy child too. For children privileged to acquire education, never was their education an excuse to keep off the farm and such children were duty bound to cultivate the soil after school hours or during the holidays to alleviate the sufferings of their parents and thus prolonged their life-spans. This tradition continued into the 1980s.
What do we see today? Unfortunately, the youth force is dangerously channeled to things that are not edifying. The youths are lazy, nonchalant, unconcerned and uncooperative to farming activities. They watch their parents leave for farm alone. What are of concern to them are frivolities – devoting all their precious time to footballing, gambling, hallucinating, fiddling handsets and dangerous experimentations.
The irony of it all is that the youths yet forget that you can’t eat your cake and have it; you can’t play football, fiddle your handsets, dance and wine on an empty stomach.
Farming is a way of life, a vocation manually or mechanically. Farming is healing-stretching your nerves and replacing inactive tissues. It invigorates, builds up strength that tones up the body of children. Farming is honorable, for it justifies your existence, your superiority over animals and plants.
Farming is undoubtedly the first natural investment of a child. Planting of crop, nurturing and watching its growth and maturity is a source of joy and accomplishment to children. Farming is lucrative and rewarding.
Farming is liken to a relay-race, there must be somebody jostling to relieve, takeover the baton. If this is what it is, and with this obvious decline and dwindling population of active farmers, do we have the young ones to takeover? It is disheartening and disappointing and gives one pause for thought, the lack of interest of the youths in farming.
In their teenage ages, they can reel off the names of musicians, boxers making waves in the globe. Good and fine. But ask them to differentiate between one part of speech and the other, simple arithmetic on fractions, percentage, decimal; they will come with “no idea” as answer. In the same vein, the older ones can perfectly reel off the names of millennium vehicles and their street value, the greatest hit albums of international stars. But when it comes to knowing what they are expected of their age, they mumble and fumble. What they -speak and write have no grammatical relevance or sequence. They take pleasure in esoteric language, dreaming dreams, fantasizing and wanting their food digitalized.
Do we therefore, allow this situation of misplaced priorities to continue? Often these children do not realize the implications, consequences of their actions in the long run.
Here comes the intervention of parents and all levels of government of the need to go back to the basics.
Teach the youth the right values you see them grow robustly. What you are is often what you have as children.
Parents have to review their authority over their own children. It sounds defeatist and unacceptable to be disarmed by what you caused his/her birth while underaged, to over-power or over – whelm you.
The youth should be made to realize that farming is not harmful. It does not remove anything from or diminish their prestige, status and complexion.
There is dignity in labour. Avenues and opportunities should be created by Local, state and Federal Governments to attract the youths to farming. Areas like poultry and animal husbandry can open opportunities for the youths. Agriculture, especially in the areas of yam, cassava and maize deserve soft loans from the Federal Government to rural farmers to step up food production.
What is good for the goose is also good for the gander. What is good for the North is also good for the South. The Federal Government should shift attention or focus to the Southern-states of Nigeria with emphasis on capital- intensive agriculture. For instance, we are yet to know what is wrong if the federal government builds dams and irrigation facilities in Imo State at Otamiri and Oramiriukwa rivers for dry season farming akin to the Shiroro Dam in Niger state, the Goronyo Dam in Sokoto, the Bakori Dam in Zamfara State, the lower Usman and Jabi dams in the Federal Capital Territory Abuja. Were dams established in Imo State, the economy and status of communities along the river banks would have been uplifted. Afterall, the land is available, the weather is congenial and there is sufficient labour force of the youths to turn the economy of the entire southern zones around.
All these suggestions put together and implemented accordingly, food scarcity, malnutrition and hunger will be banished in Nigeria.
Sydney O. Madukwem Writes from Dile Emeohe Mbaoma (Emii) Owerri North LGA, 07069123994
