Greetings!
One of the bedrocks of a nation is its agricultural practice as it speaks a lot about the survival of a nation. A nation without a functional agricultural system would not thrive but economically or humanly.
Although we have seen some advanced nations of the world thriving without a functional agricultural system, but even at that, they too are making a concerted effort to venture into agriculture so as to improve their livelihood and economy.
I have heard of an Asian country of Malaysia coming to Nigeria to take our palm seedlings for planting in their own nation. This they did successfully and now, they are if not among the largest producers of palm oil in the world. Which means, they have really made the yielding effort of promoting their agricultural system.
Aside from this, there's some country that would have loved to make their agricultural system work out, but for their land and soil, they couldn't, but even at that, they have really put things in place to preserve what they get from other countries in the form of agricultural produce.
Also, these countries that have no functional agricultural system are at times the major beneficiaries of our own functional agricultural system as they are the one helping us to refine and package our farm produce, also, they are the one manufacturing our farm machinery which are used mostly for our mechanized farming.
Furthermore and in response to the other aspect of the prompt, I can boldly say that I have been overtime involved in agricultural practices in Nigeria in my own little way. I have been able to feed my family and my community through both my medium and large scale farming. I have been involved in both planning of cassava, corn, plantain just to mention but a few and also, I have been overtime involved in rearing animals such as chicken and pigs.
So, I can boldly say I'm a farmer in both planting and in the livestock field of farming.
Also, talking about the mechanized system of farming, I would say it's the best system of farming which has helped to feed a large population of our society through the large production that comes from it. Its advantages are so numerous and I love it so much.
However, one thing I have got to know in life is that, there's nothing with an advantage without a disadvantage in life. As good as mechanized farming could be, the huge amount spent in making work is one thing that I don't really like about it as it's the rich that can venture into it, there's making the farm produce from it to be more expensive than expected.
Also, another disadvantage of mechanized farming is that of no ready made buyer for their produce which has no functional place or storage to be stored thereby making perishable goods to get spoiled. Another thing is the lack of government support in enhancing mechanized farming.
So, these are the challenges facing the mechanized system of agriculture in my country, Nigeria.
However, one of the ways I think we could overcome these challenges is for the government to support the idea of mechanized farming and also make sure that there are proper storage facilities which would in turn help us to prevent damages.
Also, creating an app for an app to enhance the sales of the farm produce would not be a bad idea in solving the numerous challenges facing the mechanized system of farming in Nigeria.
And to also contribute my own quota, I would make sure I design an app called farm direct which would help the farmers to advertise their produce for free and also connect the consumers to them directly without any middle man which means farm produce would be sold at a cheaper rate without high cost. It will only be that the transportation fare will be the only thing to be dealt with by the government.
In conclusion, it's high time all the stakeholders came together to make our agricultural system a functional and better one.
This is my entry to the scifi multiverse week 35, Edition 02 weekly prompt.
Thanks for reading.
Picture is Ai generated.