Each year thousands of youth graduate from universities having acquired skills and knowledge which they can apply to earn a living.
While the education system is geared towards white-collar jobs, the unemployment crisis is forcing the youth to rethink and start their own income-generating activities.
This is not different with Naphtali Rono, a 32-year-old farmer from the Elgeyo Marakwet border. He graduated in 2016 as an agronomist from the University of Eldoret.
As is the norm, Rono was happy to have been absorbed in the government internship programme for one year.
“After the internship programme I was sure of getting a job, having acquired the one-year experience. However, I stayed at home jobless for two years despite applications to a number of organisations,” he said.
Having grown up in the rural area, farming has been part of his interest ever since he was born, having been brought up by parents who were themselves farmers.
“My parents were great farmers and brought us up from agricultural proceeds. My dad used to grow pyrethrum and cereals and was also a dairy farmer,” he said.
After two years still waiting for a white-collar job, Rono knew he had to do something instead of idling at home. He realised that with his knowledge and land, he can apply what he learnt in school and become self-employed.
Therefore, with land, which is the most important resource in agriculture and the knowledge, he embarked on doing odd jobs here and there to get capital for farm inputs, which was a challenge to conquer.
He says it has been six years since he started farming and despite challenges, he is not regretting it, as he is able to meet his financial needs.
Rono does horticultural farming, where he grows vegetables, passion fruits and bananas, and knowing that we must conserve the environment for agriculture to flourish, he has embarked on an indigenous tree nursery.
He says he relies on individual vegetable vendors and institutions for a market for his produce. He, however, says for one to excel in agriculture, patience is key, saying while crops like vegetables will mature and start bringing in income within a period of 3 months, others like fruits take time, citing passion fruits, which take more than one year for one to start enjoying profits.
The agronomist says he earns approximately Sh40,000 per month due to market and weather dynamics but he is optimistic that he will break even as he plans not only to expand his venture but also to try new methods of farming which are climate resilient.
Using his knowledge gained from the university, Rono is currently working on shifting from conventional farming, which involves intensive use of inorganic chemicals, pesticides and herbicides to maximise production.
He says he is moving to regenerative farming, which he says is a holistic type of farming which aims to improve soil health and the environment using natural methods to restore the ecosystem’s natural processes, which results in minimising cost while maximising production.
According to him, regenerative agriculture restores carbon in the soil, thus improving productivity, encouraging biodiversity, reducing land degradation and deforestation, improving water management and helping in adapting to climate change.
Rono says with the shrinking white-collar job market, it is time for the youth to look into self-employment and more so agriculture, saying they will be contributing to food security, saying as the elite in the society, they should use their knowledge to contribute to solving the various problems facing society.
He says with changing climatic conditions, agriculture cannot be run the same way as before, saying the youth with education and access to the internet have the best opportunity to revolutionise the sector.
“Living in a digital world and being tech-savvy, we as youth should use this opportunity to research online on best practices and also use the same space to market our produce both locally and internationally,” he said.
While he initially wanted to be employed, this has changed. He says he enjoys his freedom of deciding what to do without being supervised by anyone and also setting his own targets and working to meet them without anyone putting pressure on him.
In a bid to make agriculture productive, Rono is calling on the government to streamline the sector by providing high-value seeds and ensuring there is an available market for the agricultural products, saying this will attract more youth to the sector.
He says while it has been considered a job for those who have not gone to school, agriculture now requires education just like any other job.
By Alice Wanjiru and Joan Jelimo
