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(A M Lembede, “The Importance of Agriculture”, Iso Lomuzi, Vol. IV, no. 1 [October 1934], 16–17)

An incentive which has urged me to write this article is the tendency which is prevalent among my fellow-students and other people of underestimating the value of agriculture.

Agriculture is of primordial significance in the progress of a nation. No man can accurately trace the origin of agriculture because when man was created, God, the Great Agriculturalist had already planted a garden. So, the first work that was given by God to man was agricultural work.

Some educated people disparage manual labour; they say it is too inferior for them; they appreciate “white collar-work”. Such people do not do this because they have bottomless knowledge but because ignorance has got the upper hand of them.

A man may gain the highest university degrees and diplomas but he is not better than a well-trained and industrious farmer or carpenter. A leader in agriculture, carpentry, etc.; is just as good as a leader in politics, science, education and arts.

Most of our people are not yet trained in agriculture, with the result that instead of preserving and using the soil properly, they aggravate the situation by reducing it to a useless state for agricultural activities. They always complain of the Government not giving them enough land for fields. But an Indian farmer gets rich and prosperous on one acre of land whereas an African farmer does not get this prosperity on ten or more acres of land. Why is that? This is the question for our intelligentsia to answer.

Town people with their industries, are dependent on farmers for supplies and for patronage. Failure of agriculture in a land can occasion incalculable catastrophe. Agriculture is the back-bone of a nation’s life.

Therefore, I appeal to all African students who have an opportunity to enjoy agricultural lectures in institutions and other centres to apply the knowledge they have acquired after they leave school. The conception of despising manual labour should be deprecated. Remember how Booker T Washington advocated manual training.76 He was a leader indeed.

The damage done to the soil by our ignorant farmers, who are counted in millions, is inestimable. It not only brings misery, hunger and poverty to them, but it also reduces the soil to a hopeless and helpless state for further occupation.