15050 fa itodo anthony clean

Towards Food Security and Poverty Alleviation Itodo Samuel Anthony Heriot-Watt University

agriculture with the average Nigerian farmer’s age being between 55 and 60 years. [6] This trend poses a food insecurity threat plus a rural-urban migration trend that constitutes the emergence of slums and their distasteful environmental impacts.

ABSTRACT Nigeria as a country is faced with the challenge of high youth unemployment, poverty and a looming food insecurity problem.

There is a marked apathy towards agriculture by youths, youth unemployment and rural poverty are high and rural-urban migration has created city slums threatening environmental sustainability. To address the observed challenges, I propose an approach covering the creation of community farming groups and secondary school farmers clubs that will utilize ICTs in farming to improve productivity and encourage farming.

There are several problems plaguing farming in Nigeria but my proposal captures 3 main concerns: 1.

2.

3.

YISA, a youth agricultural group will coordinate activities among the created groups by integrating ICT to gather information on agriculture and sustainable farming and transmitting to the established farming groups.

Stimulating youth interest in agriculture (to reduce unemployment, ensure food security and mitigate rural-urban migration) Integrating ICTs into food production Promoting sustainable agricultural practices like organic farming.

2. DESCRIPTION The project description looks broadly at different elements involved: the coordination framework, community and schoolbased farming groups, proposed activities for farming groups and ICTs integration to improve farming. This is captured in the schematic shown below:

This initiative aims to engage more young people in farming and provide information on agricultural extension and agricultural markets to increase the income of farmers and make agriculture attractive to young people. This is expected to reduce youth unemployment, guarantee food security and curb rural-urban migration hence reducing city slums and the environmental sustainability and health implications of slums in Nigeria's major cities.

[Agriculture]; [Information Technology]

Keywords Food Insecurity, ICT Integration, Youth Farming Groups, Environmental Sustainability

1. INTRODUCTION Nigeria is the 6th largest exporter of crude oil in the world [1] yet 70% of the population lived below the poverty line in 2009 [2].

Agriculture is touted as the panacea for setting Nigeria on the path of sustainable development. The sector employs over 60% of the country's labor force and provides a livelihood for about 90% of the rural population. [3] Agriculture presently contributes around 40% to Nigeria's GDP and though over 60% of Nigeria's labour force is involved in agriculture (mostly subsistence) the country is still faced with the challenge of food insecurity and is still a net importer of food with more than US$ 3 billion spent annually on food importation. [4]

YIS A FARMER'S GROUP Youth Initiative for Sustainable Agriculture (YISA) is a registered group of over 1500 youth, most members with university degrees in agriculture-related disciplines. YISA members are scattered around the 36 states of Nigeria and I am the coordinator for my state. YISA presently has a comprehensive organizational structure with coordinators in almost all the states in Nigeria and will coordinate activities mainly through two broad avenues: Community Farming Groups: This would be like a task force of local farmers, mostly young people who would be formed by the YISA members in communities. The aim of forming this group would be to:

Youth unemployment in Nigeria was 50% in 2011 [5] and though agriculture provides a potential solution to unemployment and extreme poverty, there is reluctance by young people to engage in

1

1.

2.

3.

Form farming cooperative societies that would result in economics of scale and efficiency in marketing agricultural produces Allow easy dissemination of information on inputs and markets and other agricultural extension services collected by YISA. Sharing of information on available markets and prices for food products to avoid wastage of food resulting from lack of markets.

5.

Online information processing and project monitoring: this will make it possible for farming communities to access government intervention programs and as well monitor the implementation of such resources at the community levels with progress tracked.

3. APPLICATION AND RESULTS The proposal idea as described above would need to be implemented in phases, starting with a pilot phase of about 3 states to see feasibility. YISA already has a blueprint for the school club farms. The technical, infrastructural and economic implications of implementation are considered thus:

S econdary S chool Farmer's Clubs: M ost secondary schools in Nigeria have social clubs as part of the curricula. I am proposing the formation of Young Farmer's Clubs in schools to enlist youth into farming at a young age. Club activities will include:

1.

YISA members will do coordination and they are mostly ICTcomplaint.

2.

Each community farming group will need a computer to access information on the data base that would be created by YISA. The school groups will utilize the computers present in most schools already.

These club meetings and school farm activities will be coordinated

by YISA and the agricultural science teachers in secondary schools.

This initiative aims to curb the incidence of an ageing farming population, encourage youth to engage in agriculture using sustainable and mechanized approaches, reduce rural-urban migration and the emergence of slums in cities, cut youthemployment by empowering youth in agriculture and ultimately reducing rural and national poverty.

3.

M ost schools have arable land for farming and the pilot schools will be picked according to this basic requirement.

4.

Information on agricultural input and government programs will be gathered by YISA start coordinators and disbursed to project participants physically and on the website.

ICTs INTEGRATION IN FARMING

The challenges addressed in this proposal are those of food insecurity, youth apathy in farming and the related environmental consequences of slums resulting from rural-urban drifts. Building on the framework of community farming groups and student farming groups, YISA will use ICTs to effectively improve farming practices, promote sustainable farming, improve farmer's incomes, and reduce rural poverty and curb rural-urban migration that results in city slums.

1.

2.

3.

Weekly meetings discussing agricultural matters and sustainable farming practices like organic farming.

The operation of mini-farms on school and community land The marketing of produced food and animals by studentfarmers

4. CONCLUSION

YISA will use ICTs to better coordinate farming among community farming groups. The basic infrastructure required will be handled by the YISA. The YISA website will be used to gather relevant information for the benefit of farming groups across participating states. ICTs will be integrated in the following ways: 1.

2.

3.

4.

Creation of an online data base of contacts, websites and addresses of agricultural extension services as well as government programs for farming. This will be done in conjunction with the M inistry of Agriculture which YISA is currently partnering with.

Registration of all community and school farming groups online, using the YISA website for now. This will be used to foster inter-group communication on productive farming practices in different communities as well as sharing market information, needs and prices.

Do-it-yourself manuals: materials on basic farming practices like fish farming will be put online for easy access to interested farming groups.

Geo-mapping and market-mapping: This initiative will involve working with the M inistry of Agriculture to produce a geomap showing which places in the country is suitable for what farming practice. The market-map will indicate markets for different communities allowing farmers market access to maximize incomes from farming.

5. SOURCES [ 1] http://quarefinery.com/facts-about-nigeria.html, (accessed July

31, 2013) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_nigeria, (accessed July 30, 2013) [3] http://www.ruralpovertyportal.org/country/home/tags/nigeria [2]

[4] http://www.corporatenigeria.com/index/agriculture/food_security.html (accessed July 30, 2013) [5] http://risenetworks.org/2013/05/16/youth-unemployment-innigeria-is-there-hope-for-nigerian-youth/ (assessed July 31, 2013) [6] http://www.businessdayonline.com/NG/index.php/markets/comp anies-and-market/38826-robust-population-growth-may-scuttlenigerias-agric-transformation, (accessed July 31, 2013)

2