Active Youth Involvement in Food Sustainability
By: Nelis Global
Tags: Farming, Sustainability, Npo

By Akor Sunday,

My name is Akor Sunday, I am 21 years old, I live in Benue State Nigeria, I love farming.

Food is a necessary substance we take in almost every day of our life to remain healthy and to satisfy our hunger, food is very important in our community but having the appropriate meal is also important because as good as it is, it can also cause some illness when the wrong kind of food is taken in.

Food is gotten from applied techniques in cultivating the soil, cultivating the soil is one of the branches of Agriculture, Agriculture plays a vital role in food production, farming is one of the occupations that makes food available for the entire nation. I am a farmer now but at first, I never loved farming, my parents are also farmers so while I was growing up, they normally take us along with them to the farm to assist in some work farm when we go to the farm, we will begin to clap our hands to kill some insects that usually enter the ear and eyes, the insects usually make a terrible noise, it made me hated farm but I knew there was no other way out so I endured till I finished my secondary school so I quickly told my mom that I’m about to go to the nearby town in search of a job so that I can continue my studies because I wanted to become a medical doctor. My mom supported the idea so I left for the town and I began a teaching job in a primary school in 2016 till 2018 when I was selected by RoyalDream Builders Initiative (RBI), the organization intends to support young farmers with necessary aid they need to continue farming, it lured me to farming so I accepted the offer and I was called for an interview, during the interview, the interviewer asked about my farm after I told him, he asked me if I would love to continue my studies of which I said yes and he asked what I would love to study so I told him I would love to study medicine and surgery, so he asked me again that if he supports me with a fund for my farm now, won’t I leave my farm after some years that I’ve become a medical doctor when they come looking for me and I quickly said no. Though I passed the interview and they supported me in my farm.

I resumed farm after a while because of the fund, I managed the farm till the next year when my Elder brother recommended me to a Youth Agri-Enterprise training at springboard, it was a 6 weeks training at Ondo State, after the training, I went back and became serious with my farm because of the way I saw how they made farming interesting.

I have a cassava farm before but after the training, I cleared a small portion of land close to our house and cultivated vegetables there, I usually harvest my cassava process it to Garri with vigorous labor and sell it to buyers who will go and sell it at a higher price to factories but I don’t want it to continue that way so I have the dream to get students as my target market and produce a different kind of Garri, the Garri would be mixed with coconut, sugar, groundnut and it would be processed and packaged.

I would love to embark on this project because it would create Job opportunity for the youths in my community so that most of us won’t travel far in search of greener pastures, because everyone will have his cassava farm, after the harvest we will now process it and share the money among ourselves, this project will also make us secure food and our cassava would have value among us, It will make us know each other better and we’ll begin to build ourselves up with morals and we can form a team that will produce a leader who will arise and improve our Agricultural sector, we want to build a nation free from hunger and we want to produce healthy foods, we want to begin to grow what we eat and eat what we grow and process by ourselves to prevent diseases that comes from unhealthy food, we want our food to be secured, we want our younger ones to have access to quality education, we don’t want to rely on foriegn aid again, we want to be equipped with skills that would develop our mind, we want to explore our climate, we want to utilize advanced technology in processing our farm products and preserve them properly, we want a new generation where even doctors and other professionals would have their farm no matter how little it would be.

Farming will no longer be for the old alone because through this, many young people who have seen farming as an occupation for only old and poor people would begin to participate in farming to create a community free from hunger and unhealthy foods, my community would become green and sustainable.

With this, our environment will have clean air, our natural resources would not be dormant any longer but will be utilized for good, we will also have a non-toxic environment, crimes would also be reduced because when someone is earning money, he won’t have the thought of robbery and other illegal means of earning money, it would also attract viable economic development, the risk of contracting diseases from food would be reduced because when we begin to grow what we eat and eat what we grow, we will know what to eat and what not to eat, people can go extra miles to make money so we can’t trust what most people produce and sell, sickness would be reduced and eradicated from our community.

This is my story in sustainability and I hope that my vision for sustainability would come true and transform my community and would spread to transform Africa at large.