Posted on September, 2, 2019 at 09:39 am
By RAPHAEL OBONYO
If Africa is to make real progress, governments and partners on the continent must make efforts and accelerate actions to enable young people to get involved in agriculture.
According to the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), the average age of farmers in Africa is 60 years. Truth be told, many young people in Africa do not go into agriculture, because they find it an unattractive form of employment. Also, youth face multiple hurdles when engaging along the food-value chains.
MILLIONS OF JOBS
Africa is a youthful continent, with youth under the age 25 accounting for over 60 per cent of its estimated 1.2 billion people. Youth unemployment is a big burden in many countries in Africa.
Agriculture is one of the most important sectors that can provide employment. Yet, a majority of the youth are moving away from the agricultural sector to fast-growing non-agricultural sectors in urban areas. African youth have shown little involvement in the agriculture sector.
At a recent meeting held in Durban, South Africa, under the auspices of FAO, the need for better communication and stronger partnerships between different actors, including the UN, governments and the media, was emphasised as key to increasing youth engagement in agriculture.
Youth unemployment realities in Africa can primarily be attributed to a problem of labour demand — the economies of a number of countries in Africa are not creating sufficient jobs to cater for the increasing number of new labour market entrants. Long-term growth plans have identified agriculture as the key mover of the economic pillar.
With the right investment, agriculture can provide millions of jobs for the unemployed and underemployed youth. Africa has an enormous opportunity to expand into a variety of agro and food processing and value-addition activities.
Indeed, agriculture is an essential driver of economic development and can provide great opportunities for young people. There is a need to harness opportunities in agribusiness entrepreneurship and innovations, including in ICT innovations, along the value chains, to improve the sector’s image, increase productivity and returns to investment and provide new employment opportunities to attract more young people.
CAREER CHOICE
Given the abundance and variety of raw agricultural inputs, African countries have the potential to increase agro and food-processing capacity dramatically. However, aspiring agro-processors will need to be supported: the enabling environment for youth engagement in the sector needs to be strengthened as well as improved access to productive resources such as finance and land.
In sum, governments, the private sector and development partners must pool knowledge, expertise and resources to effectively meet the youth employment challenge and optimise the job creation potential of the agri-food system on the continent.
In most sub-Saharan countries, agriculture is a key sector not only in ensuring food security, but job creation especially in the wake of vast numbers of youth who enter the labour force. There are considerable opportunities in agriculture all along the value chain down to retail.
As President Paul Kagame of Rwanda once pointed out, and it is true, there is a need for a rapid shift in the mind-set of our young people towards agriculture as a career choice.
With the knowledge and technology available, there has never been a better time for young Africans to get involved in agriculture and agribusiness, and create wealth and well-being for society as a whole.
Mr Obonyo is a public policy analyst;
Source: Daily Nation