Most people living in the rural areas depend on agriculture for their food and upkeep as there are not many other income generating activities that are currently being done. Most if not all farmers in the rural areas are small holder farmers who have been doing mostly subsistence farming. However, with the necessary support from various stakeholders these small holder farmers have the potential to become “small” commercial farmers where they will be able to produce surplus farm produce for sale to sustain themselves. But before it comes to that that there are issues that need to be addressed first. Most of the people in rural areas have no access to funding as financiers have always given a cold shoulder to the rural market which they wrongly consider to be high risk and unviable.
Most of the farmers also lack the technical know-how as most of them are just using “general knowledge” usually passed on by word of mouth from past generations. These methods are not always climate smart, nutrition sensitive or modern hence the need to prop up their farming skills. Besides agriculture, people in rural areas also need to be trained in other skills for income generation and self-sustenance. Skills like welding, carpentry, dress making, detergents making, pottery, bead making and many others can go a long way to create jobs and income for rural people and is the solution to most problems being faced by rural people.
