The jobless youth in the country have been advised to open their eyes and grab the many jobs in farming management services instead of watching the elderly farmers struggle in their sunset years.
The Ag. Director for Agriculture in Nakuru County Fredrick Owino said time was ripe for outsourced management of farms and a number of elderly farmers were willing to pay a premium for those who were ready and willing.
However, he noted that instead many of the youth who have been forced by circumstances to try farming were busy re-inventing the wheel instead of driving the ready farms to greater heights.
Speaking to KNA in his office Tuesday, Owino said the successful farmers in the county averaged 60 to 65 years, and they were more than willing to outsource the management of their farms to the younger generation. However, such services were lacking.
He gave an example of the popular outsourced cleaning services and said a similar model was required in farming, where a known and registered company with experts manage five to ten farms and they are paid for their services.
In addition, he said the telephone farming that has been practiced by the employed has not worked because the people they employ were not only amateurs but untrusted. And, in most cases, such workers, concentrate on siphoning farming materials instead of protecting what has been entrusted to them.
He urged the young agricultural graduates to register farming management service companies and secure the country’s future food security.
He added that he has yearned for such services for his Siaya rural farm for many years since the long distance was a deterrent for him.
Elderly dairy farmers in the county last week sounded a warning of the lack of a future for the lucrative farming because their children were least interested to take over.
By Veronica Bosibori
