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Growing the future

neelams92@yahoo.co.uk (Neelam Shah) | 17.03.2012 20:55 | London

News feature article on introducing new innovative ways to attract young people into the farming and agriculture industry.

Informing them on the benefits on farming, helping them and reducing global poverty hunger in third world countries.

“Agriculture originated in the near east over 10,000 years ago before spreading across Europe to reach the UK around 6500 years ago.”

Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the development of civilization.

The history of agriculture dates back thousands of years, and its development has been driven and defined by greatly different climates, cultures, and technologies.

“In Uganda, farming employs more than 3 of every 4 persons aged 10 years and older. Of the more than five million households in Uganda, 75 percent are engaged in agriculture and 68 percent derive their livelihoods from subsistence agriculture.”

In South Korea, the agricultural labor force was effectively reallocated. It can be assumed that members of landowning families benefited from their higher education to gain higher paying jobs while those of landless families became factory workers in labor-intensive industries with low wages and low recognition of labor rights.

In Indonesia, rural-urban migration is limited. Smallholders do not abandon farming despite low and decreasing profits. The costs of labor adjustment to urban areas are too high for a majority of farmers, due to imperfect information and uncertain incentives.

Bearing those statements and statistics in mind industrialised countries such as UK can increase development and international aid for these countries by the help of national governments working more closely with the NGOs on the future of agriculture and threat to food security world-wide.

“The Millennium development Goal 1 deals with the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger.”

According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, Agriculture and farming play an very important role in decreasing famine and hunger by 2015 in some parts of third world countries by investing in small holder farms to cultivate and grow crops, food and livestock.

One problem we have in the UK is the next generation does not want to continue with working in the farming, agriculture industries.

As a 21st century industrialized country we are reliant on technology, business exports, trades from other developing countries.

The next steps is to look at how education can be improved in the school curriculum to encourage youngsters to consider taking agriculture as a career option and educate them on how important farming is on a national level.

Educational institutions are very vital and government should join forces with schools, colleges and universities across UK to implement policies on delivering a range of courses in agriculture across the educational boards.

One other option government should consider is making agriculture a compulsory subject in the school curriculum as it might open up possible career avenues and the future of food security, farming, cultivation of crops etc. all depends on the future generations.

In order to attract the next generation into the agricultural industry for the future is introduce new multi media technologies and new ICT approaches such as Global Positioning Systems (GPS) or Geographical Information System (GIS) for sensitizing the importance of agriculture and farming.

Ministers for environment, Green party, governments, IT companies and agricultural NGO foundations must recognize and consider the use of technology and how ICT can help young people get working in the agricultural industries as a profession.

Giving young people more free access to information on how agriculture can benefit them and the world around them by using tools of communication and new media such as the internet, Web 2.0 tools, social media, mobile applications etc. can help them understand the subject of farming, cultivation of crops, growing etc.

One example of an ICT application is using farming software (Decision Support System) for example as a database to store records of planting, harvesting dates, incidents of pests and diseases can be more welcomed and appeal to young people who are keen to become entrepreneurs.

The British press should also consider ways to promote the rural exodus of the 21st century by getting more environment correspondents reporting and writing articles in all newspapers on the future of agricultural industries.

By encouraging, educating and giving young people a chance to learn about agriculture, growing and cultivation of food etc. would increase chances of young people going to study agriculture further or take it up as a career.

neelams92@yahoo.co.uk (Neelam Shah)
Original article on IMC London: http://london.indymedia.org/articles/11900

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Growing the future