SOCIAL MEDIA AND AGRICULTURE
Written by Young Farmers’ Clubs Zimbabwe
The first in a series on Social Media.
With over 1.4 million internet users in Zimbabwe social media and other digital platforms are revolutionising the way people interact in their personal and business lives. The huge rise in numbers using the Internet is thanks to mobile penetration, which accounts for 80% of Internet users in Zimbabwe. Social media is becoming increasingly popular to use in Zimbabwe because they provide a cost effective means of engaging with an audience, in addition they are simple to set up and use. Though young Zimbabweans constitute the largest percentage of people using social media, most use them for their personal daily interactions and not as interactive business and networking tools.
Basic Definition of Social Media:-
Social media refers to internet services and mobile phone applications used for the generation and dissemination of information.
We as Young Farmers’ Zimbabwe engage with social media, with our whatsapp groups, twitter page, this blog and Facebook. Our Facebook Page, “Young Farmers Clubs” has proven to be a lively platform where young farmers seem happy to interact and exchange agricultural and entrpreneurial ideas.
The posts range from someone asking,
Where do I buy machinery?
to
How do I farm sweet potato?
to
I am selling (insert crop), who is interested?
This is amazing, we need interactions like this, but are we really utilising our social media platforms effectively as Young Farmers?
From the above examples, we can establish that we as Young Farmers are using social media as a marketplace (I am selling (insert crop), who is interested?), information centre (How do I farm sweet potato? Where do I buy machinery?) and generally as a platform to celebrate and motivate each other.
How else can we use social media for our advantage as young farmers?
- REBRANDING FARMING TO THE YOUTH (i.e. making it a viable career option). For example Joseph Macharia of Mkulima Young Champions in Kenya,
Joseph Macharia, the Kenyan Facebook Farmer, has proven that social media has the power to bring together fragmented communities and truly engage young people in agriculture. It also shows that agriculture is a profitable business and that young people are eager to get involved. But above all it shows how the creativity and initiative of the young knows no boundaries!
(The Facebook Farmer-http://www.cgiar.org/consortium-news/the-facebook-farmer-2/)
Joseph is spearheading a campaign to rebrand agriculture to youths by showing its potential for their future careers. Through Facebook, Twitter and Youtube he has been able to reach thousands of Kenyan youths.
https://www.facebook.com/mkulima.young
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UChfNASkZgdYoULC5LnPwphA
Young Farmers' Clubs (Zimbabwe) 