The Infamous Green Gold

Agriculture is a term that is often frowned upon by Generation Y, the generation born in the late 1970s to the mid 1990s. I can confidently assert this because I am a yuppie, the casual term used to refer to this generation. Agriculture is a field that a good percentage of us think that it should be left for old folks and mates who were not talented enough academically.

Right from my university days some of my peers felt doomed after their college admissions came with agriculture related courses. They felt less hip compared to their friends who were admitted for Engineering (any other engineering course and not agricultural engineering), Computer Science, Actuarial Science, Law and all those highbrow courses. The agriculture students often lamented of a future so bleak save for the few who were passionately pursuing such courses.

 I studied communication and I was a peddler of this stigma associated with agriculture. Agricultural journalism was a no go zone for my dreams. I knew that upon graduation I would hit up one of the national television screens with a microphone at hand and an uptown accent to match it, reporting business news or politics, the main stay of our prime time news. Agriculture sounded one of those things that should be left to village folks. That was then. Some three years ago.

As fate would have it I now work at the department of extension in one research institution in the country. Well, I have to deal with agriculture whether by choice or by duty. I can now proudly confess my new found love to be agriculture. This turn around happened after I was frequently exposed to different sectors of the agricultural value chain. Agriculture is green gold for some young people, so I have learnt. I am yet to start farming but I am passionate about telling stories about successful young people who play a part in the agricultural value chain: farming, production and marketing.

Simply because I had a change of heart about agriculture does not mean all my buddies perceive it the same way. I have often floated ideas of venturing into agriculture to members of my chama and these ideas are politely swept under the carpet. I often get responses such as, “You mean with two degrees and a third one in the piping you expect me to do farming?”

At such times I find myself tongue tied because I have never found an appropriate answer to give these elite but severely financial unstable Gen Yians. In an effort to justify my ‘bizarre’ fascination with agriculture I have embarked on a journey to document stories of young people who have successfully shuttered the myth of farming as an old/poor man’s profession. There are dozens of success stories about young people pursuing satisfying careers in the field of agriculture. This blog is dedicated to documenting those stories.

Please share your success story on this site or you can email youngagrochampions@gmail.com