There is the need for the federal government to increase its working relationship with the private sector on agricultural programmes in order to give more youth the necessary impetus to participate in agricultural development in the country. This was the position of Jerry Ngene, the national chairman of the Nigerian Youth for Agricultural Revolution Initiative, YOFAGRI.
Ngene who noted that youths are very important resources for sustaining agricultural productivity and for national development in every nation, however, said there were dangers in the failure to engage them meaningfully. He said, the youth could also present a significant threat to social cohesion and political stability if they were not presented with sufficient economic and employment opportunities.
The youth leader stated this at the flag off of youth empowerment and launching of the initiative in Abuja, emphasising that Youth unemployment is of critical concern in the country, where one or two youths are found in criminal acts he cites unemployment as the primary motivation.
Presently, agriculture is the fastest and most stable industry in Nigeria contributing about 21% to the Nigerian GDP and with 70% of the population engaged in the sector, it has the potential to solve the youth unemployment crisis as well as to be transformed.
He said, “It is because of this that YOFAGRI, a non-governmental organization has the vision of empowering 1,000,000 Youths annually with quality seeds of crops that have comparative cultivation advantage in their domain. The private sector has established programmes that engage youths.
“Some of them include the N-Power Programme, Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship, Youth Empowerment and Development Initiative amongst others. We should ask ourselves if the existing ones are enough.”
He said the maiden edition of the YOFAGRI event involved 200 youths from AMAC, and FCT, while plans were underway to extend the gesture to other area councils and states. He said, “We therefore call on the government and other NGOs to partner with us to take our youths out of the street while providing food for the common Nigerian.”
