My name is Elenoa Salele. I work as a Temporary Animal Health Technician at the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC). I am a young person, passionate about agriculture, but unfortunately not many youth from the Pacific share the same passion. This is why I try to change this situation and by promoting agriculture through social media.
Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are being widely used in the Pacific, but have not reached the standard that developed countries are currently on. Social media is a great way to attract the attention and get the message across to Pacific youth on the importance of Agriculture.
On a personal level, I have a blog and accounts on other social networks such as Twitter, Google+ and Facebook. Among these, one of the channels I have been using to promote agriculture to youth in the Pacific is a Facebook page called “Youth and Agriculture – Sustainability & Modernization through ICT”, which is shared with Riten Gosai, one of the social reporters of the ICT4Ag conference in 2013. This page especially targets youth of the Pacific who are involved in agriculture or are thinking of making it a profession. Its major objective is to eradicate the stereotype (preconceived negative attitude) that agriculture is for the rural populace and a layman’s subject.
I also have a blog “Finding ME in the Agriculture world“, which is about me and my journey in agriculture. I am an agriculture graduate and as a youth I feel that after graduating we find ourselves drifting from one point to another. We do not know which field we want to be involved in and some of us do not get into the field that we really want to be involved in. By sharing my experience, I believe that my blog is in one way or another helping other youth, who feel the same to find their footing and adapt to it. Apart from experience sharing, regular posts on opportunities, such as scholarships for agriculture are also shared on the blog.
Even though the Pacific Islands are rich in natural resources such as land and water, we still encounter difficulties in getting individuals to farm. In one of the interviews for the Pacific Youth and Agriculture Strategy, some youth regarded Agriculture as a “dirty job”. Most people prefer to have “white collar” jobs over agriculture whilst other farmers are scared of trying out new farming ideas or innovations, therefore exhausting their resources.
As an on-site social reporter for the Fin4Ag Conference which will be held in Nairobi from 14 – 18 July 2014, I expect to have a better understanding of how we can improve our farming approach, learn more about the theme of the conference which is value-chain finance, and most importantly, pick up new skills on social reporting so that I am able to communicate and reach out to the youth in the Pacific more effectively.
What farmers want is to “see and believe” and what they want to see – is success. Taking this into account, I look forward to share experiences from my region and will keep my mind and eyes open to capture best practices from different countries and bring back to the Pacific!
Blogpost by Elenoa Salele, Social Reporter for the Fin4Ag Conference.
