Q FM Africa's Modern Radio
THE International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) has noted the need to make agriculture smart and pleasurable in order to attract youths as part of agricultural transformation.
Speaking recently when she presented a paper on the Global status of commercialised Biotech/Genetically Modified crops during a communication training workshop for media practitioners from selected COMESA countries on Biotechnology and Biosafety in Lilongwe, Malawi organised by ACTESA a specialised agency of COMESA, ISAAA AfriCenter Director Margret Karembu observed that youths are not attracted to agriculture and their first priority is white collar jobs in cities.
Dr Karembu noted that the ageing farming community means the decline in the number of farmers.
She also noted the need for agricultural transformation that required a business unusual model.
Dr Karembu says agriculture transformation is a necessary part of the broader process of structural transformation, in which an increasing proportion of economic output and employment are generated by sectors other than agriculture.
She further states that transforming and investing in agriculture will increase production per unit area to avert the diminishing farm sizes.
Dr Karembu says that other options involved in transforming the agriculture sector organic farming, indigenous knowledge, plant breeding, biotechnology, conservation tillage, Integrated pest management, sustainable resource management and variety selection.
ISAAA, a co-sponsor of the three day workshop, is a not-for-profit international organization that shares the benefits of crop biotechnology to various stakeholders, particularly resource-poor farmers in developing countries, through knowledge sharing initiatives and the transfer and delivery of proprietary biotechnology applications.