Agriculture remains the masterstroke for transforming the economy
Agriculture is considered one of the world’s largest industries. It employs more than one billion people and generates over $1.3 trillion worth of food annually. This is according to the World Wildlife Organisation, the world’s leading conservation organisation.
Most countries around the world have taken agriculture as the key to economic transformation, food security, and nutrition. Every developing country’s goal is to reach high-income status through agriculture. It plays a critical role in transforming economies to achieve the goal, along with achieving other essential development goals like ensuring food security and improving nutrition.
Agricultural transformation must become a reality if we are to end hunger and malnutrition. Any country that has achieved industrialisation had started with agriculture as its main tool and went through an economic transformation. For instance, countries like Israel, China, and India have developed through agriculture.
On Tuesday, it was good news to hear that Captain Mabior Garang, the son of the founder of the nation, the late Dr John Garang de Mabior, had declared his intention to focus on socio-economic development through agriculture instead of politics.
Mabior said he and his peers, the young people, had founded an online non-governmental organisation called the National Conversation South Sudan that he headed.
He said the organisation’s relevance is to ensure that there is the constant dialogue across the country and to inject a new ideology of peace and love into the national conversation to change the reality of South Sudanese in the country.
“We want to demobilise our youth from negative politics and encourage them to go into farming and production. We want to establish youth agricultural farming so that we can teach this technique to the young people who are already farming, “Mabior said.
This is an initiative that needs to be encouraged, and we want to see more of that kind. We need an agricultural movement like the Chinese cooperative movements.
Since its start in the 1920s, the Chinese cooperative movement has gone through three historical development stages, and it has enabled China to be what it is today.
It is only through agriculture that we can have an economic transformation as well as achieve other essential goals like industrialisation, food security and nutrition. There can be no industrialism without a boost in agriculture because nearly 90% of industrial raw materials are often derived from agricultural outputs.
It is important to encourage innovative leaders who want to transform the mindsets of our young people into productive ones. Thus, our leaders need to work hard for peace and restore security in all parts of the country so that people can embark on agriculture.
