Land Unavailability Leading Cause of Low Youth Involvement in Agriculture – CFAN

The President of the , Mr Adeola Adegoke has decried the low level of youth participation in agriculture in the country due to lack of land.

Adegoke, in a chat with AgroNigeria, said the industry, particularly the cocoa sub-sector, has been bedevilled by several challenges which had impeded its growth and discouraged youth involvement.

According to him, communities in cocoa-producing areas are unwilling to lease their lands owing to the permanent nature of the commodity.

“The issue of land availability has also become a key issue of the state. If you ask a youth who is ready to go into cocoa farming, the first question they will ask you is “where will they get land?” he explained.

He, therefore, urged the government to scale up efforts to provide land resources for farmers, saying it was necessary as the sector provides maximum returns to those involved.

Earlier, Adegoke outlined other challenges which are affecting the agriculture industry and contributing to the low level of youth participation in the sector as climate change, inflation and infrastructural gaps.

“This inconsistency in government policies, lack of security, the inflation uptrend, lack of support are some of the factors making the youths shy away from agriculture. There is also the issue of infrastructural gaps. Many of our rural community roads are not commutable by the farmers.

“Again, there is climate change. You’ll agree with me that in the last 2-3 years, we have seen the havoc that climate change has wrecked and that is why as of today, we can still see the farmers experiencing heavy rainfall when it’s almost December.

“This has, in turn, changed our planting season. For example, as cocoa farmers, we are supposed to move and start fumigant spraying in June/July but there was zero rainfall while we has serious rainfall in August.

“As of today, we have a low level of cocoa production from our cocoa trees and to us, this is a challenge. The government must think of ways to join hands with us to solve these issues,” he added.

source agronigeria