Sexy, Swagger.....What is the real meaning of these words for the Youth In Agriculture?

The only way to lure more youths in agriculture is by making it more "sexy" is a statement that has been repeatedly said to the point it was no shocker when the office of the deputy president went ahead and shared their thoughts on twitter concerning the same

The youth must bring in their swag into agriculture in order to accelerate our economic growth.
— William Samoei Ruto (@WilliamsRuto) December 4, 2013

The question that constantly lingers in my mind is, will the use of such words/ expressions really help change people's mentality towards the same? Shouldn't we be addressing the issues of  young people disinterest in agriculture and more so, what the current pitfalls  those already in the farming game are facing?

What exactly is this swag they are talking about?

Is it the swag of being seen on the social media channels as being the first one to use lots of coined "sexy" acronyms in agriculture just for the sake of it,

OR

Is it swag that offers conducive environment for young people to venture in to farming just like any other business........access to credit facilities, land, markets and such

Is it the swag that  students in the educational institutions are presented with, that they end of dropping any agricultural related courses for Economics or other hyped courses in the institutions?

OR

Is it the swag that promotes farming as a viable business/ entrepreneurship course right at the onset of these young people careers and incorporates farming courses/skills right at lower primary for young people to grow appreciating farming?

Is it the swag that makes people higher in the authority make decisions for youths involved in agriculture .....

OR

Is it the swag that recognizes that young people are part of the wider decision making bodies in the country and their views need to be heard in matters agriculture and farming?

Is it the swag that sees assumptions flooding the area of youth engagement in agriculture; that the only part of the agricultural value chain they are interested with is the marketing part.......

OR

Is it the swag that sees youths given an avenue to participate in the whole agricultural chain and not only the marketing portion.....

The list is endless and my only hope is that by these acronyms, we are seeking out to address the challenges Kenyan youth face in agriculture if at all  young people are part and parcel of accelerating the economic growth in Kenya via agriculture. If not, then you swag might as well be ........

Mending the broken link: Agriculture and Health Nexus

For the Chicago Council Global Food Security Symposium 2013

One of the panelist: Dr. Howard-Yana Shapiro,

“Finally! Finally! Finally! ” Cries a woman. “Nutrition is now part of Food security discussions “ She continues. 

Later on we come to discover she is no other than Prof Ruth Oniang one of the panelist at the Agriculture and health nexus discussion panel at the Chicago Council Global Food security symposium 2013 and a founding CEO of Rural outreach Africa and African Journal of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition and Development; . Other panelists included:

Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, the co-director of the Program in Cardiovascular Epidemiology and associate professor of medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School; and associate professor of epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health. He also doubled as the moderator.

Dr. Subbanna Ayyappan, secretary, Department of Agricultural Research and Education, Government of India; director general, The Indian Council of Agricultural Research

Dr. Howard-Yana Shapiro, chief agricultural officer, Mars, Inc.; senior fellow, plant sciences, University of California, Davis; distinguished fellow, World Agroforestry Centre

How many times has the thought of nutrition crossed your mind while enjoying that sumptuous meal over dinner, lunch or breakfast? Have you ever thought of where you would get those vitamins you badly need if the smallholders farmers in the world went on a strike say for a day, or for a week? 

These are just some of the many questions that arose in the on the Agriculture and the Health nexus discussion whose aim was to provide new thinking on how current agricultural activities could interplay with health and nutrition objectives.

Earlier on, Rajiv shah, the USAID administrator in his address noted that to end hunger effectively, people need to work from farm to market to table. High nutrient levels are needed at all these stages the produce passes be it in production, processing and finally consumption. This brings to fore the interrelatedness of food security and nutrition security. There cannot exist one without the other.

Sharing her experiences working amongst rural women in Kenya, Prof Ruth noted that if we have to build a solid foundation on nutrition security, then we need to empower women as they are the majority of smallholder farmers and hence determine what is consumed. Being decision makers ,its becomes important for them to know that having or growing  food is not enough rather focus should be on growing and consumption of  nutrient rich food. She pointed out critical issues ailing nutrition security the likes of gender mainstreaming, lack of funding, food insecurity at the household level and a case of aging agricultural scientists with no young people to replaced. She feared for Africa’s case being like Guatemala‘s where for every one hundred agricultural scientists they had, only eight are left. Tackling these setbacks could possibly set Africa as the global food basket in the near future.

“Africa might be looking like this abandoned child but she might feed the whole world in the near future” she optimistically stated

Dr. Mozaffarian emphasized that as we align ourselves in the nutritional security thinking, we need to keep in mind the core goals of nutrition, which are reducing malnutrition and under nutrition. Across the globe, approximately 2 billion people lack access to nutrients needed for their bodies to healthy. Every five minutes a child dies from hunger related diseases.

“We need to have a global view of health from utero to the elderly” emphasized Dr. Mozaffarian

On the other hand, Dr Shapiro stressed on the importance of knowledge sharing. He called out to private organizations to make nutrition segments of plant genes public so crops can be improved through research leading to better and nutrient full varieties.

“It was right to go after agricultural productivity early on, but now have to shift from calories to nutrient-dense foods” he insisted.

Dr Ayyappan shared his insights on dietary changes and the resultant ailments in India. He shared his views of encouraging gardening in both schools and at homes as a way of promoting food security and hence subsequently improving nutrition. 

Summing up the discussion, Dr Shapiro acknowledged his shock at the optimism expressed at the symposium and stated that feeding the world is indeed a huge challenge.

Do you think so?

  PS: Short summary of tweets for The Agriculture and the Health Nexus Discussion

New agriculture laws will now end colonial-style farming

President Kibaki’s assent to three key agricultural bills sets the stage for the most far-reaching changes in the sector since independence. 

 By consenting to The Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Food Authority Bill 2012, The Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Bill 2012, and the Crops Bill 2012, he now sets the stage for the consolidation of functions of a number of allied ministries, the scrapping or merging of non-core state corporations and the commercialisation of profit-making ones. 

His signature has unified the 131 laws that have governed the sector and essentially removed from the law books the ubiquitous Agriculture Act, an 80-year old piece of legislation long blamed for the dismal performance of agriculture. The colonial regime created the statute to promote European farming at the expense of indigeneous Kenyans. 

The new laws, passed by Parliament during its final sittings, seek to transform farming into a professional, well-paying, internationally competitive and attractive to the youth. The agricultural sector is to drive Vision 2030. 

Depending on the preference of the next Government in setting its Cabinet, the ten allied ministries can now be collapsed into one or two, as envisaged in the initial drafts by the Agricultural Sector Coordination Unit , a multi-ministerial agency that has overseen reforms in the sector.
The ten subsectors are: Agriculture; Livestock; Land; Fisheries Development; Environment and Mineral Resources; Water Resources and Irrigation; Regional Development Authorities; Cooperative Development; Forest and Wildlife; and Development of Northern Kenya and Other Arid Areas.
Among parastatals facing the axe is the 63-year old Cereals and Sugar Finance Corporation. It is in debts, and its operation has often been questioned by Parliament. In fact, its liquidation has been inexplicably pending for over ten years.

Others are Sisal Board, Cotton Board, National cereals and Produce board, Coffee Board, Tea Board, Kenya Sugar Board, Pyrethrum Board, and Coconut Development Authority, Kenya Plant Plant Health Inspectorate Service, and Horticultural Crops Development Authority. 

Their functions will be taken over by a new powerful body, the Agriculture, Livestock and Food Authority. The Dairy Board, Kenya Meat Commission, Pig Industry Board, Pests Control Board, Kenya National Artificial Insemination Centre, will collapse into a Livestock Authority.
The Kenya Agricultural Research Institute will merge with other research institutions, including Kenya Triponomias Research Institute, Kenya Forestry Research Institute , Coffee Research Foundation, Tea Research Foundation, Kenya Sugar Research Foundation to form The Kenya Agricultural Research Organisation. 

The agricultural sector comprises over 60 parastatals. Already, reforms implemented in the last ten years have seen about 20 parastatals scrapped. “Some of the parastatals reproduce the work of others,” says Dr Sally Kosgei, Minister for Agriculture. 

Take the example of the Cereals and Sugar Finance Corporation; established by Parliament to raise money to lend to Government agencies for the purchase and production of grains and cereals. It is still in business despite the fact that the Government declared it insolvent about ten years ago.
“The corporation is dormant and technically insolvent,” said the Auditor General’s report 2008/9. As early as 1976, Parliament had singled it out among the corrupt parastatals. 

According to the new laws, profit-making parastatals will run as companies. “Every (parastatal) that carried out any commercial activity with the objective of making profit have twelve months to transform into a company and be registered as a company under the Companies Act so as to enable (it) carry on commercial activity.” 

The new law s discount any fears about job losses. “Any person who, at the commencement of this Act, is a member of staff of a former institution shall, on the appointed day, become a member of staff of ALFA on the same or improved terms and conditions of service as may be specified by the Cabinet Secretary”, the Act states.

Reblogged from the Star newspaper http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-103423/new-agriculture-laws-will-now-end-colonial-style-farming

Opportunities in Agriculture: You’ll be surprised.

I’m already surprised 

Some weeks ago, I got a chance to attend the Second Global Conference on Agricultural Research and Development at Punta del Este Uruguay as a Kenyan youth in agriculture delegate with Young Professionals in Agricultural Research and Development (YPARD) with the mere reason of bringing a global youth voice to Agricultural Research for Development (AR4D). 

Well in a conference attended by close to 800 people drawn from all over the world, only 36 onsite  of them comprised of young people representing YPARD or being part of the social reporting team or both.

So this leaves us with the query of are youths really participating in agricultural research for development? If so, which are some of the avenues they can tap to keep their dream alive?

Meet YPARD an international movement by young professionals for young professionals whose main agenda as per its mission is to “serve as a global platform through which young professionals (under 40) can express their ideas and realize their full potential towards a dynamic agricultural research for development”. Theirs is the vision of creating sustainably improved livelihoods worldwide, through dynamic agricultural research for development.  

The movement came in to place as an avenue of expressing the lack of interest of youths in agriculture and related careers and their subsequent lack of representation in dialogues concerning the same not forgetting the lack of resources for the same.

So what do they do?

Etched in their global operations are four actions they undertake to achieve their vision

• Building a strong network by linking with organizations active in Agricultural Research for Development and youth issues. More so by spreading the YPARD word and getting people involved on the same
• Giving a voice to the youths by either promoting greater inclusion of youths in the strategic ARD debates or speaking on their behalf and bringing their issues of concern on the table
• Capacity building and information sharing by either providing information on funding, job opportunities and events. They also facilitate access to capacity building opportunities
• Promoting agriculture among the young people by working to address the issue of declining interest in agriculture among the young people
• Besides this, they also other services to young professionals like you which include
• Updated information on their website of available opportunities, events and featured news on agriculture
• Bimonthly funding news bulletin and monthly newsletters covering the latest happenings in agriculture
• A chance for representing other youths in your region in the ARD debates and discussions
• A podium to share your experiences in ARD and even more give an opinion on matters relating to agriculture and youth involvement

So what are you waiting for? Get involved today

HOW

• Sign up at www.ypard.net and be part of the network
• Contribute actively to the online discussions and events
• Write a blog for them concerning your experience in the AR4D
• Stay connected with them on through social networks LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook