An official at the Ministry of Agriculture has called for the legislation of children's right to be paid for doing farm work.
According to Agricultural Development Corporation (ADC) chairperson Benjamin Cheboi, younger Kenyans are discouraged from pursuing agricultural activities due to poor compensation.
"We need a law mandating parents to pay their children whenever they work for them in the farms.
"Involve children in farming so that they can get interested or allocate them land and support. Why pay other people and let your children toil for you for free?" Cheboi posed.
[caption caption="Charles Osawa, farmer living with disability demonstrates how he tills his shamba"]
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Speaking during a consultative meeting with CEOs in Mombasa, Commodities Fund managing Trustee Nancy Cheruiyot lamented that farmers were ageing and the craft was slowly dying off.
"Aging farming community is rife. In some areas, the youngest farmer is 70 years old. This is a sad scenario," Ms Cheruiyot observed.
Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mwangi Kiunjuri added that parents ought to transfer land to their children early enough.
"You employ another person, pay him leaving your son or daughter lacking ownership.
"They leave rural areas to major towns because of such challenges.
"We have ageing farming population due to parents clinging to jobs and farms," the CS urged.
[caption caption="Agriculture CS Mwangi Kiunjuri"]
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