The youth in Nyamira County have been once again urged to embrace farming and use it as a way of earning a living and beat high unemployment in the region.
A renowned vernacular radio presenter, Erastus Moturi on Friday during a visit at Bokeira ward said he was concerned with the rate at which young people were abandoning rural areas to seek employment in urban centers.
He said a number of frustrated youth had reverted to crimes and robbery with violence yet they have left behind arable land that can be utilised to earn them a decent living.
“Sometimes I am discouraged with youths who seem to believe in white collar jobs alone. They do not want to hear about farming and view the activity as uncivilised and belonging to old people.
Farming pays and this is a wakeup call for those moving to towns to seek jobs only to revert to crime in order to survive,” he said.
Moturi urged the youth to make use of loans from micro-finance institutions and the Youth Enterprise Development Fund to expand their farming at rural areas and create employment amongst themselves.
“We must realise that the government is giving loans and we also have banks that can lend money. Make use of that and expand your farming and at the end of the day you will realise that you’ve also created employment for others,” he said.
He said farming had been left to the old and uneducated making the area youth live in abject poverty and fully dependent of their parents.
“If we want to move ahead as youths, we need to be all rounded. Engage in all kinds of farming and see how you will have progressed. It doesn’t mean that you cannot do farming after you get a job. Farming is for everyone and it pays,” he added.