‘Crops Cultivation, Panacea To Unemployment’

Cultivation of different specie of crops by individuals has been described as panacea to unemployment among the teeming youth population in the society.

A versatile farmer, Mr. Jerry Godsday Elem, a native of Odiemerenyi in the Ahoada East Local Government Area of Rivers State who made the disclosure in a chat with The Tide in Ahoada over the weekend explained that so long as there was land, anybody can make a good living out of farming.

“True, if you can devote your time, you can make a living through farming, because I can see that there is money in farming”, he assured.

While lashing out at some of the youths who while away their time either sitting and waiting for jobs that were not forthcoming, Mr. Elem adviced them to get involved in the cultivation of one crop or the other and the urge to excel would come up naturally.

“These people, if they stay at home and wait for non-existing jobs then I may say they are cheating themselves.

“All the years they spend doing nothing can be used doing one farm or two and at the end they will surely make it definitely”, he assured.

Mr. Elem who described farming as his job, explained that for more than four years, he has no job and has been cultivating the land alone with his immediate family.

“Exactly, it is true, I am a farmer that is my job, well for more than four years now, and there is no job.

“I do it alone with the support of my family members. If I can see a helping hand maybe from the government or any other avenue to obtain soft loan then the sky will be my stepping stone”, he stressed.

According to the farmer who described his farming ability as a special gift from God, without formal training, considering the number of specie of crops he cultivates, his main undoing he said was how to get fertilizer to increase his yield.

“Well this is a gift from God, I did not go for any training, it is a gift from my heavenly father.

“My main undoing is how to get fertilizer for my crops as I am cash trapped”, he lamented.

Some of the array of harvested crops he displayed included assorted fruits like Israel guava, avocado pea, native pea, paw-paw, and English guava as well as the native specie.

Apart from all these, some of the vegetable I cultivate are Okazi, water leaf, bitter leaf, pumpkin among others.

Infact, all these crops I cultivate are primarily for commercial purposes and over the years, it has been my main source of livelihood.

I use the proceeds from my farm to feed my family and send my children to school”, he said contentedly.

While expressing dismay at the non chalant attitude of some of his people in seeing the good and beneficial aspect of farming to the economic wellbeing of the individual, he however promised to make them see good reason as to the benefit derivable from doing farm work.