Was Anai saved by a Wolf? Uganda Climate Change Adaptation Story

Was Anai Saved by a Wolf?

Photo Credit: ironage.info

Over sixty percent of forest cover vanished and 10% of arable soil lost in the last 20 years. The community of Anai embraced brick-making as major source of livelihood abandoning farming when rain and soil fertility started failing them.

Whether their choice was right or wrong, there was no better judge than time. The result of Anai's choice is out: the environment has been greatly degraded, the area is getting arid, the swamps have dried up, even water for making bricks is not there and families are so disgruntled as poverty and hunger rage in Anai even more.

Written by Abet Tonny

''With no single food grain in the house, I had been so troubled but I have eventually stopped worrying. I have come to agree with Jesus that every new day caters for itself. But I didn't want to live in uncertainty like this. The rain has consistently failed our crops here. Last year we harvested no single grain, the drought could not allow and there is hardly any money to purchase food today either,'' Cylvia, a mother of 10 narrates as she walks me along with a scary wide and deep spread of hole where the soil is quarried to make bricks.

The holes are neck-height in-depth when you jump inside and roughly 10 square meters wide. This brick making site is where Cylvia along with 3 families of her married sons find refuge when crops fail. They go making bricks for sale. Sylvia's brick-making site is adjacent to her younger son's grass thatched house and a thin road leading to a spring well negotiates along.

Anai, a prominent community in Lira district found in the northern part of Uganda continues to portray very abnormal social and economic characteristics. With a small population of 12653 as of the year 2018, Anai has for the last two (2) decades remained the top producer of cured bricks supplying the springing city of Lira.

According to Sylvia, brick-making is the major source of livelihood in Anai introduced around 1991 when the rain volumes and patterns in the area started reducing and becoming unpredictable respectively. Crops started failing and hunger became more rampant. However, the available data and information from key informants seem to point that wide embrace of brick-making has contributed to a phenomenal increase in rates of crime, drug abuse, school dropout and teenage pregnancy, illiteracy, domestic violence and hunger in the community of Anai.

These issues started emerging in the last 15 years -roughly 5 years since the embrace of brick-making as a substitute for farming. According to key informants, Anai has found itself wretched since the commence of brick-making and the locals are helpless as children remain illiterate and food insecurity threaten the future of Anai. The complexity in Anai is probably resulting from a bad climate change adaptation strategy.

As a science writer based in Lira district, the dire situation moved me to design a special investigation focusing on why Anai shows these socio-economic disparities well knowing a number of other communities across Sub-Saharan Africa have found themselves entangled in Anai's kind of situation - a wrong climate change adaptation strategy. In designing this investigation, the important question was, could be embracing brick-making as major source of livelihood be causing more harms to

Anai and if yes, is there a way out? The 12-month slow-paced investigation focusing on five (5) parameters: state of tree cover in Anai, the difference in rainfall (pattern/volume) in Anai, state of soil (fertility/erosion), the extent of wetland reclamation and difference in crop yield in Anai. The investigation shall involve interactions with local people, policymakers, environmentalists and climatologists. The other bit will entail work with researchers to perform laboratory studies depending on the availability of funds. The investigation was launched in October 2018 and this is the first release.

Since 1991, Anai started moving away from agriculture strategizing in brick-making, a form of livelihood where 70% of the community dwellers have been engaged at someone point. According to Okello -a learned young man and prominent brick-maker, an investment of $100 in a brick-making venture will yield $20 to $30 in 3 months.

''This is far better than farming where we are always getting no yield because the rain is very unpredictable," Okello narrates as he clears the brick-making site. As the discussion gets more interesting, Okello reveals that most locals can't raise the $100 investment so families keep working for 'local investors' like him with the locals earning $10 to $20 monthly ($0.3 to $0.7 daily).

This daily earning can at best secure only one meal a day. Not mentioning the health, education and clothing needs of the family. This may partly explain why there is a high rate of school dropout -parents have no money to pay school fees as feeding alone is big trouble. When I asked Okello about the likely danger of his work to his surrounding, Okello had this spirited answer, "Yes I think there could be dangers like deforestation associated with need for firewood to cure the bricks and soil loss just like the industries in Lira town like Beb Wine and Mukwano are also causing dangers to the environment by releasing toxic wastes to the river.

You can't tell me to go farming to save the environment well knowing the rain will fail me and I will turn into a thief. Let the government bring us irrigation and we shall change. In fact, this brick-making work is harder than farming but we do it because it is more secure."

Close to 10% of soil in Anai has been sold off in form of bricks. At least 60% of tree cover has been lost in a quest to remain competitive in producing cured bricks. Generally viewing, the mature trees make up less than 2% of the remaining trees in Anai.

Mature trees are the most preferred in curing bricks. Deforestation is not a unique unfolding in Uganda, in September 2018, Uganda National Forestry Authority reported that Uganda has lost over 3,000,000 hectares of forest cover in 25 years only. The lack of tree cover means wind and fast running rainwater can carry away the soil. The soil surface runoff speed of rainwater remains unchecked. 

The unchecked speed of running water causes a huge volume of topsoil rich in organic matter and nutrients to be washed away leaving the farmers with soil that is not fertile. The massive soil loss in brick-making will also mean the next breed of young people settling in Anai and interested in farming have nowhere to start from. The deep and wide holes may take close to 100 years to fill up with arable soil. This is according to Opio James, an environmentalist based in Lira.

The morning of December 4th, 2018 found me in Anai. It is a period when schools are ongoing and am in the western part of Anai. It rained here 2 days ago but the soil is consistently dry. Few young trees can be seen distances apart, it's has been a full hour riding along swamps but I have not yet seen unreclaimed wetland. Dried stems of rice from the previous season are common in all swamps revealing the swamps are being reclaimed to grow rice. Few sugarcane plants can also be seen in other reclaimed swamps.

There are also several brick-making sites per home and other huge communal ones with women and young children toiling in making bricks. Some few adult males either standingby the brick-making sites or sunbathing at the site.

Most of the brick-making holes are around waist-height to neck-height deep. It is 8:30 a.m in Anai, a number of youthful and adult males can also be seen squatting along the main road and others seated in trading centers either playing cards or sipping alcohol in small-white sachets. ''They are awaiting trucks that would show up over the day to ferry fired bricks to Lira town,'' Sam, a local at a trading center in Anai informs me as if worried I was a policeman coming for idlers.

''Life has greatly changed here over time, in the 1980s there was no brick-making here and everyone was farming. The soils were fertile and the harvests were very good. But the rains started failing us coupled with soil infertility. It was around the same time people started making bricks. More people started abandoning farming due to poor yields in preference for brick-making,'' Cylvia seated on a papyrus mat under her mango tree narrates to me.

Cylvia's husband reclaimed some portion of wetland 5 years ago to grow sugarcane and rice. ''It is the sugarcane and rice from wetland that enabled us build this small iron sheet-roofed house,'  says Cylvia. Cylvia has a small iron sheet-roofed house with a bedroom and sitting room. I sat wondering how the small house fits her 6 children except for the relief the other 4 children are adults in their own grass thatched houses.

Cylvia along with her husband do brick-making as well as engage in farming. Some of her garden land is located upland but she prefers the wetland garden. However, a wrangle had emerged last year on the ownership of the wetland and her family lost the entire garden.

Cylvia thinks brick-making caused rain shortage and soil infertility due to deforestation but she does not believe wetland reclamation has impact on environment. According to another brivk-maker, Opio, sometimes it is strange that it rains around Lira University -just 3 kilometers from Anai and not a single rain drop falls in Anai. Cylvia amd Opio believe brick-making is not sustainable but they see no way out either.

So far, 3 months have passed and the investigation is getting more interesting. Anai remains one of the hotspots for impacts of climate change and environmental degradation.

Enormous deforestation and wetland reclamation top in the concerns. How the deforestation and wetland reclamation directly result in the high reduction in rainfall in Anai is one of the major areas where locals and policymakers are interested in understanding. Remembering that before brick-making started in this area, Anai had already started experiencing a reduction in rainfall.

The next phase of our investigation shall involve interviewing a number of climatologists and environmentalists as well ad sharing some credible research findings by top scientists. Was brick-making a Wolf and not Saviour to Anai's situation of reduced volume of rainfall? The next release shall be in July 2019.




About the Author:
Abet Tonny is a Freelance Science Writer from life science background graduating in 2016 from Makerere University. He has professional training from CABI/SCIENCE AND DEVELOPMENT NETWORK and Amref Health Africa in investigative reporting of scientific issues. He guest writes for GLOFORD Uganda and his blog SCIENCE JAF. He is also a passionate farmer and a good will ambassador of Young Professionals for Agricultural Development (YPARD) in Lira district. Email:tonnyabet@gmail.com

How to Prevent Breast Cancer

getty images

Long before they get their first pimple, budding breasts remind them they're women in training. They want them to grow bigger, they wish they would stop growing. It  can be mind-twisting seeing others too small others flatter whilst others are round like ball -and definately why even responsible family-men can't resist staring at them. 
Kim Kardashian, American celebrity in one of her stunning revelations said this,  "I remember crying in the bathtub. I took a washcloth, made it hot, put it over my chest and prayed, ‘Please don't let them grow any bigger. They're embarrassing me.' I was the first girl in my class to wear a bra. All my friends were super skinny, and that just wasn't my body type. But I watched my mum, who was always comfortable with herself, and she helped me with my outlook.'' 

Bigger or smaller, breasts still remain incredible part of a female -one of the most fascinating occurences on females that do not only define their feminism but symbolize the magnificient outpour of a woman's beauty. 

Written by  Abet Tonny

Unfortunately, women all over the world are threatened by one breast munching disease -cancer. Breast cancer is one of the most ruthless forms of cancer claiming thousands of lives of women annually indirectly contributing to a fast rise in the number of orphans and broken families as widowers fail to stabilise the family after the soul-sapping loss of loved ones. 

Gettrude is a Breast Cancer Survivor, Uganda

Acording to WHO, 7.6 million people died from cancer in 2008, and in 2018, 9.6 million deaths from cancer were recorded. This is sharp increase in number of deaths by over 2 million -a lot of people! And WHO projects nearly 11 million people dying from cancer annually by 2030. 

There are different types of cancer and the most common ones include; lung cancer, breast cancer, colorectal cancer, skin cancer and stomach cancer.  

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women worldwide. In any four women battling with cancer, one them is suffering from breast cancer, this is according to Breast Cancer Research Fund.

Let's read the WHO heart throbbing projection which time is proving its reliabllility as we can see the trend from 2008 to 2018 and we yet have 12 more years to go.

Key statistics

• In 2008, 7.6 million people died from cancer accounting for 13% of all deaths worldwide.
• The number of global cancer deaths is projected to increase by 45% between 2008 and 2030.
• About 70% of the cancer deaths in 2008 occurred in low- and middle-income-countries.
• About 30% of the cancer deaths could be avoided by a change of life style and more healthy behaviours.
• The vast majority of cancer deaths are preventable: every year 1.5 million people die from cancer linked to tobacco.
• Vaccination against the human papilloma virus (HPV) and screening for pre-cancer or cancer are key tools to prevent the 530 000 new cervical cancer cases diagnosed every year.

So the question is, how can I or my loved ones stay safe??? Well, let's explore the way out from breast cancer in the next 3 minutes from one of US oldest,  SITEMAN CANCER CENTER with a Siteman  doctor.

1. Keep Weight in Check

It’s easy to tune out because it gets said so often, but maintaining a healthy weight is an important goal for everyone. Being overweight can increase the risk of many different cancers, including breast cancer, especially after menopause.

2. Be Physically Active

Exercise is as close to a silver bullet for good health as there is, and women who are physically active for at least 30 minutes a day have a lower risk of breast cancer. Regular exercise is also one of the best ways to help keep weight in check.

3. Eat Your Fruits & Vegetables – and Avoid Too Much Alcohol

A healthy diet can help lower the risk of breast cancer.  Try to eat a lot of fruits and vegetables and keep alcohol at moderate levels or lower (a drink a day or under).  While moderate drinking can be good for the heart in older adults, even low levels of intake can increase the risk of breast cancer.  If you don’t drink, don’t feel you need to start. If you drink moderately, there’s likely no reason to stop. But, if you drink more, you should cut down or quit.

4. Don’t Smoke

Smokers and non-smokers alike know how unhealthy smoking is.  On top of lowering quality of life and increasing the risk of heart disease, stroke, and at least 15 cancers – including breast cancer – it also causes smelly breath, bad teeth, and wrinkles. Now that’s motivation to stay smoke-free or work to get smoke-free.

5. Breastfeed, If Possible

Breastfeeding for a total of one year or more (combined for all children) lowers the risk of breast cancer. It also has great health benefits for the child.

6. Avoid Birth Control Pills, Particularly After Age 35 or If You Smoke

Birth control pills have both risks and benefits. The younger a woman is, the lower the risks are. While women are taking birth control pills, they have a slightly increased risk of breast cancer. This risk goes away quickly, though, after stopping the pill. The risk of stroke and heart attack is also increased while on the pill – particularly if a woman smokes. However, long-term use can also have important benefits, like lowering the risk of ovarian cancer, colon cancer and uterine cancer – not to mention unwanted pregnancy – so there’s also a lot in its favor. If you’re very concerned about breast cancer, avoiding birth control pills is one option to lower risk.

7. Avoid Post-Menopausal Hormones

Post-menopausal hormones shouldn’t be taken long term to prevent chronic diseases, like osteoporosis and heart disease. Studies show they have a mixed effect on health, increasing the risk of some diseases and lowering the risk of others, and both estrogenonly hormones and estrogen-plus-progestin hormones increase the risk of breast cancer. If women do take post-menopausal hormones, it should be for the shortest time possible. The best person to talk to about the risks and benefits of post-menopausal hormones is your doctor.

8. Tamoxifen and Raloxifene for Women at High Risk

Although not commonly thought of as a “healthy

behavior,” taking the prescription drugs tamoxifen

and raloxifene can significantly lower the risk of

breast cancer in woman at high risk of the disease.

Approved by the Drugs Authority for breast cancer prevention,

these powerful drugs can have side effects, so

they aren’t right for everyone. If you think you’re

at high risk, talk to your doctor to see if tamoxifen or raloxifene may be right for you

And the last good news is that there are handfuls of breast cancer survivors. Read more here>>> SHARE Cancer Support. Their stories will inspire you -if you are a victim or taking care of one. Follow Gettrude's survival story here>>>Gettrude survives breast cancer inpires many

Uganda is putting all efforts to fight breast cancer.

This is a sharing by Abet Tonny
Science Writer based in Uganda, East Africa.

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Why more are quitting formal jobs for farming East Africa

Quitting formal jobs for farming East Africa

Written by Abet Tonny

I previously wrote about youth disterest in agriculture across East Africa. This particular sharing is the revelation of the other side of the coin. More intelligent young and mature people continue to abandon their professions to do farming as a full time career. They say farming is very lucrative and time has proven them right. Let's explore more.

A young Annie Nyaga, a professional Biomedical Scientist from Egerton University of Kenya moving into farming and aspiring hundreds of other young people to join farming and years down the road, he annual return from farming cintinue inspiring more young people across East Africa to go farming. Annie is one of the many young professionals joining farming as a career. Allan Ahimbisibwe (Plant Dr) of Sparks Agro Initiative was a Statistician turned farmer. Allan continues to be one of the biggest inspiration in Uganda to young people to engage in agriculture.

Let's read briefly from Allan:
"I remember when I was growing up my dream was always to study hard ,pass with good grades ,go to makerere university (the best in the region) and get a good job in a bank specifically bank of Uganda.
Even when I got to university, we still had dreams of working in big organisations and earning good money.
But I successfully failed to achieve this even with my good grades and good course.
After graduating, I was lucky to get a job in a bank earning 500k a month ,at first I thought this was much money but after working for over 7months and I had no achievement not even a single saving ,I made a hard decision to resign.
I decided to think like I had no degree ,I actually forgot that I had even gone to makerere with a bachelor's in statistics
I went back to my mothers home and that's how my story of entrepreneurship started without capital."

Apunnyu Malcom is yet another young professional teacher turned Poultry farmer and poultry industry innovator of Eazehatch solar incubator.

Solar egg incubator made in Uganda

We can't forget about Bampata, of passion fruits. Bampata is a mature lady holding degree in nursing but upon her relocation lately to Uganda, she discovered the salary scale for nurses in Uganda was not attractive. She kept herself busy teaching before settling fully to her dream of passion fruit farming. ''It was my dream project from the start since I was a teacher at St. Kagwa Junior Primary School. I don’t regret quitting my professions because I am making money,” says Bampata.

Bampata earns millions from passion fruit annually

Back to Annie Nyaga. Bold decisions are taken by powerful people. To a number of young professionals, they would rather remain broke and revert their intelligence to following complex Hollywood movies than be seen engaging in farming. It's the same experience I had to face 3 year ago when I abandoned my profession as a Biomedical Technologist to follow my passion of owning a farm and being engaged fully in productive agriculture. For I was that promising young scientist but the salary scale was so disinteresting doubled by the fact that the profession was not my passion and my story is still building on. A great mix of reactions from college professors and parents often emerge. Could Annie have gone insane? Was someone testing his/her exclussive magical powers on Annie? What probably went wrong with this intelligent lady? Well, these are some of the questions that will keep repeating themselves among parents and stakeholders in academia and government. The payment scale for most prifessional jobs in East Africa is not attractive. And your rival, farming, once thought to be for losers and not lucrative is making a great come back with more reward of high return and a nice addition of wanted freedom when aspirants understand how it works. More successes from farmers continue to aspire young people across the region into farming. Lucrative crops like pumpkins, passion fruits, watermelon and animal production like keeping layers among others are rewarding farmers highly and the young people are watching. A local farmer who grows watermelon earns upto $4000 per acre under good agronomic practice in only 3 months with a small investment of $1000 only. Meaning this farmer gets a net profit of $3000. Meaning the young farmer guy has $1000 per month with benefit of freedom as one can only be in his garden 2 days in a week and still succeed highly.  A professional scientist like Annie and many other Ugandans earn $200 to.$300 per month meaning in 3 months they have $600 -$900 without a dot freedom. This is far below what a dedicated micro-scale fellow young person earns. It's also far below what a devoted illiterate taxi driver earns.

However, it's is good to note that farming is for people who are patient and those who are good to go with getting hands dirty and living lowly even though they are sometimes richer than many. One time I was working for an agrochemical company in Kampala city, these farmers would come simple and living moderate but the money they have often left me with more questions than answer. How could I be working in glass house, parading a large life yet earning only $200 a month which can't even sustain me in the city if I don't mix with shrewdness.

The discussion around youth enggement in agriculture continue to take bewildering shapes in East Africa with multiple scenes to inspire and intrigue. Handfuls of young knowledgeable people who studied agriculture and related courses sit waiting for formal jobs in Uganda where over 400,000 young people are chunned out from numerous learning institutions into the nation's skinny job market which can only accomodate 80,000 people. And, with a high population growth rate, job seekers are expected to reach 48 million by 2040 with less than 10 million formal jobs expected to be created by then. The situation is going out of hand with 40% unemployment rate. A number of older people occupying the few existing job positions now detest hearing the term 'graduation day.' Except for their children graduating. Graduation is a huge threat as more brainy young stars capable of dislodging these older ones from the family bread winning jobs emerge.

Whilst millions of young professionals sit in homes dying for a miracle of hearing the next bang of email notification saying, ''you have been shortlisted for job interview'', intelligent and focused young people like Annie Nyaga are hanging up their lab coats, deserting those air-conditioned work room for the lucrative freedom-filled side of life made possible through farming. Annie is a Biomedical Scientist by profession from Kenya. The payment in most professional jobs in East Africa are heart-numbing. A professional scientist earns $200, far below monthly earning of illeterate taxi driver in Kampala city.  Ahmisibwe is another story, he is the founder of Sparks Agro Innitiative. He ia a statistician by profession abandoning his Bank job for farming. Not forgetting Malcolm Apunyu of EazeHatch solar incubator abandoning teaching profession for his love for poultry farming to become one of the Uganda's greatest young innovators in poultry industry. This is crazy read right? Well, this is wat we call farming and youth engagement in agriculture in East Africa, endless exciting stories. Imperative. Farming is a full side of life with great adventure and flexible enough to pay you as much as you put in unlike most formal jobs where it takes decades for payment scale to be revised.

Tony's Top 4 Lucrative Crops for Uganda 2019.

Now, there are pros and cons of farming just like in other careers. Drought, low soil fertility, opportunists/middle-men, pests and diseases are some of the bottlenecks for entry level young farmers. It costed me last year when someone I hired his garden started claiming my market-ready melons for being his own sweat. The story was soul-sapping. You need to be prepared to mitigate these bottlenecks. You may need to acquire irrigation system _often very affordable, you also need to link with experienced farmers and consultants to offer additional security. Having class knowledge in agronomy is far from practical farming.
Farming is a great side of life, filled with great freedom and yet sensitive to dedication and hardwork to reward wholesomely.

In simplicity, the peope coming into farming from distant backgrounds like statistics or health have seen the other side of agriculture that most young people including those in rural areas abandoning farming and migrating to urban areas have not seen. These are the very people with true passion and dedication to success in life through agriculture. Working with these epitomes to re-attract the youth into agriculture can be one of the best choices.



Please feel free to give your comment below.








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The paradox of youth engagement in agriculture; East Africa

29 year-old Nyaga in her watermelon garden

Massive interest is being redirected by governments and development agencies to youth engagement in agriculture across the globe, UN FAO is at the center stage in this noble move.

Written by Abet Tonny

This is a situation analysis of youth engagement in agriculture in Uganda and Kenya. 

There has been a worldwide disinterest among young people to engage in agriculture. Sub-saharan countries like Uganda not left out. One of the ferocious factors disinteresting the youth in Uganda, East Africa from agriculture is the low profitability of agricultural investments. The low profitability springs from little/lack of knowledge on basic farming practices and the skills to strategically cope with the realities facing them such as; depleting soil fertility, unreliable rains, low yielding seeds, emerging pests and diseases, land fragmentation due to high population increase and the worrying influx of self-centered middle men into the agricultural production value chain. The young people have the necessary strength, curiosity and aspirations which when realligned and channeled into productive agriculture will catalyze the global sustainable development goals 1 and 2.

We should acknowledge that the devoted old farmers tirelessly delievering fresh apples, tomatoes, eggs, chicken... to sustain our extravagant urban diet were once young people who took interest in farming. All of them had options including to become factory workers or work in mineral mines of Mombasa but they decided to stick to farming, the valuable producers of food we enjoy! The threat is that their valuable contribution in ensuring food security would go to drain if sustainability is not planned and implemented, the young people are pivotal in sustainability of food security of our nation and the global population. Yet, we can't force them to engage in this chain but we can interest and re-attract them into productive agriculture.

The question is, how relatable is the concern to a nation like Uganda?

A travel to Anai, Lira district in Uganda can leave you with more questions to ask about the food security of the district in the next 10 or 30 years. It is increasingly getting hard to find intelligent and devoted young person eager and learning to grow these crops, fruits or raise the animals with passion like our older farmers did. The recent studies on youth engagement in agriculture in Uganda stands as low as 55% from 73% of 2005 of Uganda National Census of Agriculture. Implying approximately 1.5 million young Ugandans abandoned farming in the last 10 years, a huge number!  The sharp and brainy young people in developing countries like Uganda are in urban areas riding motor cycles (boda boda) or selling boiled eggs in Owino Market in Kampala city of Uganda. The hopeless ones are drowning in drunkardness and engaging in all sorts of criminal acts like robbery. It is important to appreciate that the quality apples, tomatoes, vegetables or chicken we enjoy are produced by excellent farmers, sharp farmers. So just like in medicine or health, agriculture/farming equally needs excellent people. This disinterest of sharp energetic young people away from farming is a global concern, happening in U.S.A as well as in China amongst other nations of the world. This needs to haltered with immediate effect if global food security is to be sustained. 

The other side of the discussion is creation of enabling environment to make young people thrive in agriculture. I would love to make it clear that farming can be more productive than a job employment when one concentrates. Most parenta are so negative immediately they hear the word farming or agriculture. Let's briefly read from Annie, a 29 year-old Biomedical Scientist turned farmer>>>here Annie Nyaga has been in farming for sometime now. Her annual return from farming continues to aspire more and more young people to join farming.       

Food security, household income and unemployment remain some of the catalysts behind the push on youth to engage in agriculture. Most young people translate youth engagement in agriculture as 'getting your hands dirty.' However, agriculture is a vast terrain with a number of mind intriguing and adventurous areas.  Developing technologies for farming such as apps for diagnosing plant diseases (e.g Nuru), and apps like EZYAGRIC for online marketing of farm inputs and outputs. You can also work in research and manufacture of drones for monitoring the farm estate and irrigation solutions. People who love deep science can study plant disease and pest dynamics to develop award winning tolerant varieties. Then we have the usual; engagement in farm production of crops and animals, extension service provision and produce business. Fixing yourself as a young person into any of or other relevant areas equate to youth engagement in agriculture.
This is the very class with great knowledge in crop and animal production but they would prefer to use their skill only when employed in some company or farm estate to serve as agronomists or agriculture engineer. This class consists of young people who stopped in secondary level of education, holders or certificates/diploma/degree in agriculture or related studies that would make them excel more if they engaged their skills in farming. 

In a developing country like Uganda, youth engagement in agriculture takes a twist. It is being promoted as a way out from the overwhelming unemployment burden the government is getting hard time to mitigate promptly. Unemployement is not unique to Uganda but a global concern. Agriculture promoted among young people in Uganda and most African countries is leaning on engagement into crop and animal production which works well for young people who are either uneducated or don't have capital but those who desire mind stimulating work such as research and innovative product development are left helpless and potential untapped. A number young people in this latter class are seated in homes from morning to sunset glued to TV screen as they wait for the next call to come for interview in a research or agrochemical company. However, some of them have succeeded in picking up and developing ground breaking innovations like EazeHatch egg incubators and Fruit dryers among others.

However, with no bias, productive agriculture is more rewarding than employment when one decides to concentrate and grow in it. The biggest trouble with most of us the young people is that we have seen huge farms, interfaced very successful farmers and we want to launch into farming in their level which leaves the aspiring farmers not only feeling so incapable but also useless. Start small.

This sharing is also sensitive to advocating for enabling environment for young people to engage in agriculture. The perception of most parents on agriculture is always vague. It is true that we are what we think. As a parent, it is possible you see farming as the side of life for losers. Well, this is not true. You are simply not exposed to successful farmers living larger than you. The other thing is the land ownership system where a child is only accorded land after marriage. When your child is intending to go farming, s/he needs land and you should be in position to suppport him or her with land where possible. Sometimes your child will need capital supplement to make the process successful especially purchase of equipment like irrigation equipment. The government should also subsidize and make available loanable money to young people who do not have security which is a deal breaker when young people approach financial institutions like banks. However, young people should always consider growing slowly and reduce dependance on loan money that presents higher chance of frustration as farming just like any other business can fail especially in the starter years that experience is being built.