The over 40 per cent of African population living in the rural areas, especially the youths, have been advised to take advantage of their environment by turning it into opportunities, reports NaijaAgroNet.
Head of the Comprehensive
Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CADDP), Dr. Augustin Wambo Yamdjeu gave
this advice in a chat with NaijaAgroNet at the on-going five-day inaugural
meeting of Specialized Technical Committee (STC) on Agriculture, Rural
Development, Water and Environment in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
He said, African youth are
the backbone of everything the continent
has been trying to do with promising future which must be discovered for them
to be able to claim it.
Also, he admonished the
youth to desist from having the notion that only those living in the cities or
urban areas could be successful in life.
“We have to stop moving from
rural areas and increasing the number of people living in shanty towns in the
cities,” he decried, adding that the expected transformation through
agriculture could be achieved by the youth taking the bull by the horn and charting
a new course for themselves via taking advantage of their rural environment.
“I believe in reversal of
goals. Let the youth stay in the village where the possibility to create
sustainable livelihood system for themselves and their families are possible through
farming,” he said.
Dr. Yamdjeu underlined the need
for member nations of the African Union to invest more in rural transformation
and territorial development by way of reducing rural-urban migration.
For him, CADDP through its Rural
Futures; a framework that promotes transformation of rural areas in continent, already
have thoughts on this, saying, for various African regions to be successful in
agriculture, every factors militating against the sector must be brought to the
table with solution proposed.
“If indeed we have to encourage the youth into
embracing agriculture, then rural areas have to be provided the opportunities
that people are looking for in the towns, ranging from basic social services to
agricultural financing,” Dr. Yamdjeu counseled.
+Remmy Nweke (ITRealms) in Addis Ababa
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Pix: Dr. Augustin Wambo Yamdjeu