The process to make farming across Africa a professional and organized venture has been a long one. As The Guardian explores, even in countries with well established industrial farming standards and infrastructure, such as South Africa, there has been significant difficulty in helping the latest generation of farmers establish real roots and make their businesses into sustainable and high quality of life enterprises. One challenge behind this is housing; Africa as a whole has a housing crisis, and farmers are not spared from this. A good place to start is by looking at the housing stock already available.
Looking to startups
As highlighted by advocacy and research platform ReliefWeb, there are significant housing challenges across the continent, especially due to urbanization. Over 40,000 people are moving into cities every day across the 54 countries in the African continent. Rural areas are often neglected as a result of this, including those rural areas that are key to agriculture. According to ReliefWeb, one of the big aims of activity to rectify this comes through startups. Among other pursuits, these startups are helping to put new rural-urban movers in touch with high quality realtors, who will help them to find suitable properties; new construction on ready-made units that meet good building regulations; and integration assistance, to ensure that new movers know how to link into their local community. These startups now need to look into the rural area, and see how they can support farmers to obtain good quality housing in order to make their own work as efficient as possible.
Building good habits
The value of housing has to be bedded in from an early stage – and this is what has been pursued in educational facilities. According to Africa University, ready-made housing has been built to help promote the proper education and comfort of students enrolling on modern agricultural courses. Rather than looking to the classic view of agriculture, where comfort and quality takes a second place to the relentless needs of simply getting the job done. This will help to educate future generations on what’s required to be a successful and productive farmer.
Harnessing foreign investment
There is a high degree of interest in African farming from international governments. The UK government has invested $109 million to Nigerian farmers, and $550k grants to a variety of schemes in West Africa. This is a significant level of foreign investment and represents an opportunity for farmers in those countries impacted. By looking at these funds and making the case for high quality permanent housing, there is a valuable chance to make long-lasting and purpose-fitting accommodation for the next generation of African farmers.
Housing is crucial to upgrading and building resilience in the African agriculture sector. Without it, too many farms will simply be hanging on, rather than flourishing and providing serious value to the continent. To get there, more help is needed from outside parties as well as a commitment to education.
