A British multinational, Balton CP, is offering advanced
agricultural solutions, which seek to change the youth mindset towards
agribusiness, while empowering them with the technology: knoMaking
farming 'cool' for Kenyan youthledge,
skills, support and financing, to engage in modern agribusiness, reports NaijaAgroNet.
The agribusiness inclined company has been around as a major
driving force in the agricultural sectors of many countries throughout Africa
for over 25 years. They can be credited with being the first to introduce drip
irrigation technology in several African countries in the late 1970s, greatly
boosting the sector.
The group's 'Farming is Cool' campaign was launched in Kenya
in 2011 by its subsidiary Amiran Kenya and following several years of activity,
became its pan-African 'Farming is Cool Africa' Initiative. Over the last few
years, NaijaAgroNet gathered, the
campaign has allowed Amiran Kenya and its partners including the government,
donors, NGO communities and private sector to place the Amiran Farmers Kit in
over 1,000 primary and secondary schools throughout Kenya and in more than 300
youth polytechnics in the country.
NaijaAgroNet also learnt that AFK
is an award winning, modern agribusiness unit anchored on a holistic approach
that offers the farmer the tools, training and support required to engage in
successful, sustainable agribusiness.
This unit has allowed over three million Kenyan children and
youth to be exposed and willingly take up modern agribusiness using the most
advanced, cutting edge technologies and methods available in the market tody.
In Kenya and indeed most African
communities, NaijaAgroNet learnt, youth view agriculture as an unbefitting
occupation often practised by older people in retirement or by those in 'shags'
(rural areas) who have to farm to survive. More so, many schools often use
agriculture as a form of punishment for deviant behavior.
Cyriacus
Nnaji/GEE
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