WELCOME

The challenge of the next half century is whether we have the wisdom to use that wealth to enrich and elevate our national life, and to advance the quality of our … civilization.
Your imagination, your initiative, and your indignation will determine whether we build a society where progress is the servant of our needs, or a society where old values and new visions are buried under unbridled growth. For in your time we have the opportunity to move not only toward the rich society and the powerful society, but upward to the Great Society.

This exhortation of Lyndon B.Johnson to youths of his time is as important to this generation as it was to those youths. We are the future and can make a difference.

Welcome to this blog in which Kwa Gaston reflects on how his dream world-A world in which though scarce resources are equitably distributed to its inhabitants each according to his/her needs and merits and in which the long ignored potentials of youths as key development actors is acknowledged and tapped for the achievement of a world that is just through more people-centered and more youth inclusive policy formulation and implementation processes
-could more than a dream become a reality.

samedi 1 octobre 2011

Save Our Rural Areas! Part .2

 In the first part of our reflection we saw why we need to save ruaral areas from collapse.In this second part, we look at how  save rural areas.

THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM

Most young graduates and even not so educated youths migrate to towns because agriculture is portrayed by the Cameroonian educational system as being “Demeaning”.When the people who are presented to young pupils and students as successful are only those who own 50 Hummers, 20 Mansions, 10 wifes, 15 girl friends, and 20 bank accounts somewhere in Europe, and are above all civil servants, it is but normal that these youths especially those who think they are far off from being like the models presented by society to want to be civil servants, embezzle, and live like their models.The educational system must be restructured to present more favourable image of  the agro industry to young students and pupils

ENCOURAGE AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH
Cameroonians from the Cameroon Development Corporation(CDC) in the 1960s were sent to Malaysia to teach Malaysians how to plant  oil palms, today Malaysia is the first producer of palm oil in the world while Cameroon’s production of palm oil has even declined. An agricultural research policy especially as concerns the intergration of ICTs in farming will do much good to Cameroonian youths.

MAKE RURAL AREAS A PRIORITY

Rural areas are the most poverty stricken, have a high illiteracy and HIV/AIDS prevalent rate, are the most inhabited, and posses the great untapped development potentials. This is all based on my conviction that, for a successful and timely achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), many more rural area dwellers in Cameroon, Africa and the  world need to be educated on the fundamental role they can play for a participative  achievement of these goals.
Creating awareness on MDGs and advocacy for greater youth involvement in community development is the aim of one of the programs that the Education for Development Foundation of Cameroon is implementing. Knowledge of international trade mechanisms, financial (fiscal and monetary) tools, and development issues is vital if  this project and others is to have a far-reaching and long lasting impact .

The famous PDDAA of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development(NEPAD) SIGNED BY  Cameroon alongside other African countires in Maputo in 2003 requires that  atleast 10 percent of the budget of  counties be allocated to the Agricultural sector. This in a way mean that particular attention is to be given to areas in whch agriculture is the main activity. But in Cameroon less than 3 percent of its budget is allocated to agriculture. If this trend continuous, it is but eveident that the nose-dive of agricultural production will continue and rural areas will die.

MAKE YOUTHS THE BACKBONE OF DEVELOPMENT
The desire for a ore comfortable and decnt live are amongst the highest push factors for rural exodus. If this problem which has led to the abandonment of rural areas by youths to their ageing and dieing parents and weak tender ones and thus aggravating the the production of agricultural products is to be solved ,
electricity must be extended all rural areas to enable youths  enjoy the facilities that requires the availability of electricity  such as computers, phones(Chargiing of batteries), and facilitate the transformation of food crops other value adding activities
tar raods,
Precipitate the coming  of and vulgarize  the use of ICT tools like  computers, phones etc which will help young farmers to  better plan and manage their  their agricultural cycle, their harvests as concerns planting, harvesting, transformation , and distribution of its output

extend network coverage of these areas.This will facilitate training and acquisition of knowledge on:
-Mnagaement of produce
-Planting(efficient) techniques
-New inventions in the agricultural domain
-Collaboration among farmers, youths in rural areas with those in towns or even those outside the country
-The marketing of produce
-The organization of farmers,youths etc into networks to acheve a common goal.This facilitated by modern communication channels

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