An hungry nation is an angry nation

It is expected that by 2050 the world population will have doubled. The challenge now is to bring up a society that is well aware of the demands that comes with the extra mouths to feed. Threat to this the challenges of climate change.

What therefore can be done to ensure that the future is food secure. Keeping in mind with the fact that Arable will not increase. We the farming community have to up the game so that the future generation is food secured.

In December 2015, the world's attention was focused to Paris where the world leaders met to ratify the Strategic Development Goals. Of Great importance to us in Agriculture were No Poverty (1) Zero hunger(2), climate Action (13) Life on land (15) and Partnerships for the goals (17).

People with common interest in Agriculture need to meet and discuss on how future of agriculture will be secured. GCARD3 Summit will give us an opportunity to discuss, agree, disagree, exchange, interact and strategise and draft a way forward on how we shall approach Agricultural sustainability head on.

GCARD3 has five key themes and I am interested in sustaining the business of farming (4) and ensuring better rural lives (5). It will mean that farmers shift from the traditional farming models where it is done for subsistence and looking at it from a professional perspective where young people have to live a descent life and earn a living by engaging in Agribusiness. We also have to look at farming  as an responsibility of ensuring the world is food secure rather than just feeding the local communities.

I am also a strong proponent of climate smart Agriculture.  Being a global concern I believe that people who are better placed to deal with environmental conservation are farmers. This is because there is a thin line that separates farming and environmental conservation. Activities of environment conservation such as protecting water towers and forests, planting trees, preventing soil erosion and water pollution among others directly relate to Agricultural communities.

The Agri-preneurs in the rural areas have to come together and explore options in which they can participate in the value chain. Being one of them (farmers), we have to design business models that can take us beyond farming. We are better placed to come together and do Value addition, Marketing and even penetrate input market. Strategic partnerships will ensure farmers and not short-changed. It gives better deals. From farm to fork, the value of a product changes such that it sometimes doubles or triples the value at farm gate yet the farmer does not benefit.

With my experience in business model designs and background in Agribusiness, I will work with my fellow youth in the globe to internalise and broaden Agribusiness models and business development. We want to also as farmers partner with organisations working on combating climate change because we know climate change directly influence the way Agribusiness activities are done. Involving public and private sector players is key towards ensuring transition and sustainability of the activities and objectives.  I also have good verbal presentation skills, an experienced trainer and competent report writer.

This blog post is part of the GCARD3 Youth blogpost applications. The content, structure and grammar is at the discretion of the author only.