Urban agriculture, urban farming, or urban gardening is the practice of cultivating, processing, and distributing food in or around urban areas. In both scenarios, more direct access to fresh vegetables, fruits, and meat products through urban agriculture can improve food security and food safety.
Most rural people, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. In Kenya, rural households who are mainly smallholder farmers rely on agriculture for most of their income. The agriculture sector plays an important role in employment creation. However, the sector is reportedly dominated by the elderly people while youths tend to shy away.
Looking back to the days of our ancestors, farming was the major activity for them. Their main worry was feeding their growing population. The person with the most children and great harvests was respected more. But what changed? We live in times we’ve variety of jobs in the market. Most young people have gone for white collar jobs and looked down on farming as a ‘dirty job.’ But is it really dirty when you can’t go for a day without a meal on the table?
Over the past years, standard land use and industrial farming practices have caused a decrease in land suitable for food production. Instead of creating soil that’s rich in nutrients, these practices reduce soil fertility.
In just more than a decade, humanity’s relationship with tech has advanced more than in the previous century through the use of social media. We are farther apart yet closer together than at any other point in human history, thanks to free online social platforms where we can connect with new people and speak to them in real time from just about anywhere in the world. These new tools are becoming more critical for small businesses.
In the year 2020, the outbreak of COVID-19 brought with it severe economic and societal consequences negatively impacting the market flows. This saw the imposing of drastic stress on people more so farmers. The COVID-19 pandemic also disturbed the sustainable growth for the wellbeing of businesses and national economies.
There are so many farmers operating in different farming practices. Sometimes they might lack all the knowledge they need when it comes to crop farming, pest prevention and other information relevant to their farming practice. This is why working with agronomists to bridge that gap of inadequate information is important.
I know you are wondering if influencer marketing is really necessary for agribusiness. Some will argue that farmers are not on social media to be influenced by influencers sharing on farm products. Covid19 pandemic gave every business person a reason to be on the digital spaces to create their communities, relationships and be able to share about their products for the purpose of marketing, selling and branding. This also includes on finding ways to partner with influencers to market their agribusinesses.
While farmers put a lot of effort in their farming, they tend to get the least out of it when it comes to the market and it’s only through value addition that this trend can be reversed.