Getting today's youth interested in agriculture

Bangladesh has seen a historic rebirth of a nation on 5 August 2024 as a result of the students' protest against autocracy. This country is known to be the land of miracles, and our youth have shown tremendous determination and aspiration to convert the impossible into possible on various occasions. 

There are 170 million people in this country, and unemployment is one of the major challenges. 

As per the recent data from Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) around 2.6 million people are unemployed and 83% percent of them are aged between 15 to 29. This unemployed youth is running after either government service or corporate jobs for job security and social status. The colonial ghost - that only a government job can secure their life - is still haunting them. 

Meanwhile, adequate numbers of managerial jobs are not created, which is why a big chunk of unemployed educated youth are left behind in the system.

Huge untapped sectors like agriculture can be explored by these young minds. Bangladesh's economy is deeply rooted in agriculture, making farming the cornerstone of its prosperity. To ensure long-lasting food security and environmental sustainability, the country must prioritise developing a profitable and eco-friendly agricultural system. 

In reality our farmers are still rooted to conventional farming methods where they are fighting with natural calamities and incurring huge amounts of crop loss each year. They are applying harmful chemicals for heavy yield without considering the environmental consequences. 

Tech savvy agricultural startups are growing up as a niche sector, but very few are exhibiting promising success due to lack of crowdfunding opportunity, infrastructure, streamlined regulations, collaboration and proper mentoring. They most often fail to scale up their business and eventually fade away from this potential sector. This sluggish growth is discouraging youths to get involved in agriculture.

Most of them are unaware of ethical pest management and disease control. The main reason is the generation directly involved in farming are not conscious of sustainable practices. 

Majority of them have never heard of estimation techniques or data analytics for precision farming. As the arable land is limited due to population growth, rising urbanisation and industrialisation, resource optimisation is crucial for the agricultural sector where we need biotechnology, artificial intelligence, machine learning and genetic engineering to ensure food security. 

Energy, innovation, and tech-savviness of youth can revolutionise our farming practices and take it to a different height. 

We need to raise the question about what social factors are hindering the youth from devoting themselves to agriculture. Did we ever raise a question of why the young generation is drifting away from the agricultural system? 

Farmers are feeding the entire nation, yet the only narrative we learnt about them is "Farmers are poor, illiterate and ignorant". 

The sad but true fact is that our farmers are still the victim of post harvesting hurdles and supply chain ineptitudes created by intermediaries and syndicates. Young entrepreneurs and startups can play a major role in leveraging state of art technologies to smoothen the logistic support systems. 

These young people could be job creators instead of job seekers. Tech savvy agricultural startups are growing up as a niche sector, but very few are exhibiting promising success due to lack of crowdfunding opportunity, infrastructure, streamlined regulations, collaboration and proper mentoring. They most often fail to scale up their business and eventually fade away from this potential sector. This sluggish growth is discouraging youths to get involved in agriculture. 

Another issue is that urban millennials who are aged between 28-43, and the Generation Z aged between 12-27, believe in the stereotype that agriculture is all about farming in the field. But this notion has to be changed. 

Farming as a profession should not be pigeonholed. One need not work in the field to work for agriculture. Sustainable agriculture is a combination of crop and soil science, equipment, technology and much more. Young minds need to redesign these old philosophies. 

Bangladesh already has some success stories in the field of smart agriculture in the last few decades. Scientists are developing stress tolerant crop varieties to cut production cost, ensure safe food by adding nutritional components and researching on developing traits in crops that are resistant against pests and disease. 

For a densely populated country like Bangladesh, conventional farming can no longer be a solution to ensure nutrition and food security for the growing population. 

Bangladesh became the 29th nation to grow genetically modified crops (GMO). The journey started in 2014 and there are many more years to go. But the science behind GMO is less known to common people. 

This sector could flourish more, but due to some fear mongering, unsubstantiated myths about GMO and unavailability of comprehensive legal framework to address the biosafety of GM crops, it is being held back. 

Government, employers, investors as well as the policymakers need to invest in youth and create avenues for them so that they feel encouraged to engage in agriculture and proudly claim themselves farmers. 

Lastly, youth involvement can help bridge the generational gap in agriculture, ensuring the transfer of traditional knowledge while incorporating modern approaches. This will not only create alternative job sources by alleviating unemployment, but also leading the nation towards a sustainable and prosperous tomorrow.  

Ishrat Sharmin. Sketch: TBS

Ishrat Sharmin is a development professional. 

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and views of The Business Standard.