المشاورات

توظيف الشباب في الزراعة حلا قويًا للقضاء على الجوع والفقر المدقع في أفريقيا

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the Government of Rwanda and the African Union, are co-organizing a regional conference on “Youth Employment in Agriculture as a Solid Solution to ending Hunger and Poverty in Africa: Engaging through Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and Entrepreneurship” on 20 and 21 August 2018, to promote an exchange among stakeholders on knowledge and good practices regarding the interface between agriculture, youth employment, entrepreneurship and ICT innovations in agriculture and rural development. The conference will focus on the following three major cross-cutting themes related to youth issues:

  • Youth and Entrepreneurship focusing on sharing experience, challenges, exploring solutions and new opportunities for youth entrepreneurship, particularly how to develop and sustain youth-led, or youth-focused, business products and services geared towards agriculture and ICTs.
  • Digital Innovation to overcome agriculture value-chain related constraints focusing on innovative solutions to support youth-related digital innovation and modern production technologies in agriculture, youth-focused networking and engagement around entrepreneurship, innovation and agriculture.
  • Future of Work in Rural Economy focusing exploring the future face of agriculture, its impacts and opportunities for youth, and how international organisations, governments, the private sector, civil society and all other development actors, can leverage expertise and contribute to the groundwork already laid out.  

For more information visit the conference website.

As part of the preparations for the conference, this online consultation is being held to collect broad views around the major thematic areas of the conference and provide an opportunity to youth engaged in agriculture and rural development across Africa, especially those who may not travel to Rwanda, to:

  • Share experiences, successes stories, lessons learned, and good practices of youth led entrepreneurship and digital innovations in agriculture;
  • Ask/raise questions on youth employment in agriculture and entrepreneurship, digital innovations and future of work in agriculture to be addressed/answered during the conference.

To contribute to the conference, we invite you to share your experience and views by replying to the following questions:

1. Experience as a Youth in the Agriculture Sector

  • How would you describe your experience as an Africa youth engaged in the agriculture sector in your country? What motivated you to engage into the agriculture sector?

2. Major Achievements and Success Stories

  • What have been your major achievements? Do you have any experience or innovative ways that have helped you in your work that you would want to share? Do you have a success story – either your own or any other that you are aware of - of youth engaged in agriculture in your country? What is the story?

3. What the Rwanda Youth Conference Should Address

  • If given an opportunity, what question would you ask the experts at the Rwanda Youth conference on each of the three sub-themes – a). Youth Employment and Entrepreneurship, b). Digital Innovation to Overcome Agriculture Value-Chain Constraints, and c). Future of Work in Rural Economy - of the conference?

We look forward to your contributions and thank you very much in advance for your time.

Bukar Tijani

Assistant Director General/Regional Representative for Africa

Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO)

Regional Office for Africa (RAF)

Accra, Ghana

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Sylvester Chabuka

Mtengo Wakumunda Enterprise
Malawi

Dear Sir/Madam,

Here is my take on the online discussion.

I am Sylvester Chabuka a young Malawian man of 23 years. My professional journey in Agriculture started last year when I got selected by the Ministry of Agriculture to embark on a 3 months youth Agribusiness and entrepreneurship training at SMEDI in a NEPAD project. But my passion for agriculture can be traced back to my early childhood when I saw our families in the village harvesting surpluses crops but eventually would still experience famine in the late summer due to lack of Agriculture processing or preservation skills. This fact propelled me to sick for a carrier in Agriculture. The major challenges so far have been lack of financial resource to finance my activities and dealing with expectations from the family and peers, as many consider agriculture as the least field a person can engage in, of which am proving wrong.

My major achievements have been the registration of my business, MTENGO WAKUMUNDA ENTERPRISE, (farm price enterprise) and the commencement of production soya porridge flour and Nsima flour.

Through my venture which I started with $20 I have been able to buy a digital scale, a sealing machine and have to female workers helping me in production. On the other hand realizing that no financial support is really available for me I have invested in tomato farming where I am targeting to earn $1,000 as it is the only thing that stands between me and my success in agribusiness. Besides farming tomatoes I am also growing leaf vegetables for family consumption and commercial.

On youth employment I would love to ask "what financial support is available for young agri entrepreneurs?"

Thank you for this wonderful opportunity. I look forward to attending the conference.

Kind regards

Sylvester Chabuka

+265882363382

In Mozambique, in recent years, there has been interest in young people in the agricultural value chain. Although young people view agriculture as suffering, a nightmare, which has no immediate results, many young people when they finish agricultural training do not follow up with their specialization, preferring more accessible jobs or jobs, such as commerce and finance.

My organization, the Agency for Development and Entrepreneurship, has led to acb in the last 4 years, a work of awareness and promotion and involvement of youth in the agricultural value chain. instill in young people that agriculture is also a source of employment, employability and self-employment when it is done with proper science and research.

One of the major problems and limitations, there has to be access to financing, since commercial banks require high interest rates. But we are doing policy advocacy work to influence the executive, private sector, to create accessible financial instruments or mechanisms, example Start-up.

There are some initiatives that we are carrying out, such as the implantation of Agro Incubator, rural development and gymnasium and creation of greenhouses.

1. Experience as a Youth in the Agriculture Sector

It has been an amazing experience for me especially being a starter in the field of focus. I am deploying low cost greenhouses in Cameroon. It is the first time it is being done. Up until my presence, Cameroonians did not trully belief greenhouses could do well in Cameroon - it has been the most rewarding experience seeing these beautiful fruits growing through time until harvest. Amazingly, we have turned the use of the greenhouse into a multiuse tool with potential to amerliore several handicaps faced by agrculture in Africa. 

And over the years, our exploits with the greenhouses have been record setting from growing crops with extended shelf life, healthier and hence more valuable than outdoor grown crops. We have also been able to use the greenhouses to grow crops year round, gaining in large harvest(on small lots of land compared to outdoor agriculture) consistent in quality and quantity to supply several markets. 

Being a youth, born and raised in this communities and being seen trailblazing has been a blessing to me. More so in the areas of agriculture where very few are venturing into nor innovating in the field. 

I grew up around farms in Cameroon while living with my aunt Rose and personally witnessed how small-scale farmers were neglected. She worked atleast 10 hours a day for 6 days each week cultivating and collecting tomatoes. She spent the 7th day selling a handful at the local market and delivered the remainder to wholesale distributors who knew she was desperate to sell before the tomatoes perished and compensated her with far less than she deserved. 

Upon leaving Cameroon, I also witnessed the challenges faced by the government in addressing issues in agriculture. Being raised on the farms and studied at a prestigious University, I realized I had the background to effectively introduce solutions that will change agriculture in Cameroon forever.

I am an entrepreneur by training and in every crisis, I see opportunities. Today, I am capitalizing on these opportunities and positioning myself to lead several operations within Cameroon. I also plan to run for President of the country.

2. Major Achievements and Success Stories

The inability of local citizens especially small-scale farmers to grow crops year round is a major challenge especially in developing countries where there are no affordable technologies for indoor farming. This leads to loss of income and productivity during the off-season as well as a hike in market prices for seasonal crops. These farmers tend to over produce during on-seasons but the lack of affordable preservation mechanisms deepens their losses. They are unable to meet up market demands and incur losses in the supply chain, which further exacerbates their socio economic standards.

As a solution, we have customized the affordable greenhouse technology for our communities and enabled small-scale farmers and other producers to become more productive and more profitable.

Using the affordable greenhouse technology, we have established a one-stop shop that develops, deploys and markets the technology to multiple users and also training participants in the process. In so doing, we have emerged as the nations premier sustainable agriculture company with a goal to empower the local citizens with the technology, giving them the unique ability to grow crops year round backed by a market platform to package and channel their harvests to target markets. The end result is a healthy environment with a population that has become more productive and more profitable.

So, since inception, GHV has pioneered the exploitation of this technology in Cameroon; customized the technology for every ecological zone and useful for a wide variety of crops; standardized the cultivation of several crops to maximize production and minimize loss; trained many and finally developed a Farm Franchise model which has attracted the masses into greenhouse and sustainable farming. We are also pioneering the development of greenhouse dryers and dehydrators.

Our technology and business model continuous to gain attention and widely accepted in several communities nationwide.

3. What the Rwanda Youth Conference Should Address

The conference should address the following:

a. Access to funding to agrientrepreneurs with viable projects not back by any collateral

b. The development of private agribusiness incubators solely independent of the government

c. The formation of a coalition of agricentrepreneurs throughout the continent for the exchange and sharing of ideas for mutual benefits.

I am Dumisani Kananza, from Lilongwe Malawi, a Renewable Energy engineer graduate from Mzuzu university with a passion for agribusiness and entrepreneurship and an influencer.

 

EXPERIENCE AS A YOUTH IN THE AGRICULTURE SECTOR

More than 50% of the population of African countries is below the age of 25. Most of these countries are faced with high youth unemployment levels, poverty and hunger. According to the African Development Bank, 60% of Africans live in rural areas and such areas depend overwhelmingly on agriculture for livelihoods.

In a report by the World Bank, Africa's food market to be Worth US $1 trillion in just 15 years to come. Currently, Africa spends about US $60 billion on food imports each year, benefiting producers outsidecthe continent. 80% of the farming in Africa is done on subsistence basis and the majority involved are the elderly. We have the largest, most vibrant group of young people yet jobs have to be created for over 250 million of them. Interestingly, Africa has over 60% of the world's arable land and so transforming the agriculture sector and taking it as a business, not just to feed ourselves and families but proving that we indeed are the world's food basket is the solution to ending hunger and poverty and in so doing, creating jobs for the youth.

In Malawi, 85% of the groundnuts is produced by smallholder farmers who are characterized by having limited processing capacity, poor storage facilities and low levels of mechanisation. These farmers also lack access to quality markets that offer better prices for their produce. Apart from that, most of the groundnuts produced have aflatoxin levels above the acceptable value due to lack of knowledge in Good Agriculture Practices and Good Storage Practices amongst the farmers. Since quality and food safety starts from the farm, the high aflatoxin levels are also present in value added products such as groundnut flour and peanut butter in the value chain. In providing a solution, I together with my cofounder did set up a company called Blue Cloud Limited with a focus on value addition to agro produce. The company is 3 years old and we exist to transform the nation's health by providing highly nutritious foods, taking maximum advantage of the country's agro endowments. Our vision is to become a leading producer of highly nutritious foods. As of date, our main product is peanut butter, branded Lian Smooth Peanut Butter. We link with our farmers who are youth and women through the National Smallholder Farmers Association in Malawi (NASFAM), and the association trains the farmers in good agriculture practices and aflatoxin control. We have managed to set up a peanut butter processing factory and we are working on getting the product certified by the Malawi Bureau of Standards (MBS).

 

MAJOR SUCCESS STORIES AND ACHIEVEMENTS

I do consider the successful product development process of coming up with the Lian Peanut Butter brand and product that meets the customers needs as a major success. Our value proposition makes the product standout and the product is doing well on the market, with a lot of traction and a very good customer base. I got featured on the entrepreneur’s page in one of the leading newspapers here in Malawi, The Nation, as a result of my entrepreneurial journey.

In 2016, I got selected and I did attend the Standardization, Quality assurance, Accreditation and Metrology (SQAM) workshop which was organized by SADC and was held in Maseru, Lesotho. This gave me an opportunity to interact with stakeholders and players from the food sectors from other SADC countries and Gabe me a chance to share my views and learn from others. After the workshop, I was selected to attend a training that was offered by the Malawi Bureau of Standards in Food Safety Management Systems based on ISO 22000 and ISO/TS 22002-1 which I successfully completed and got certified. In addition, I also attended a training on Global Food Safety Initiative based on local sourcing for partnerships project, Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) implementation which was organized by the COMESA Business Council. The project train we, agriprenuers in HACCP as a tool in enhancing partnerships with supermarkets and hotels. The knowledge I gained through these trainings has helped me a lot in setting up a factory that complies to the requirements of the Malawi Bureau of Standards.

Another achievement this far is my participation in the Building Bridges Road to Nairobi 2016 Project which aimed at promoting youth led innovative businesses across east and southern Africa. Lian Peanut Butter got selected among the top ten businesses in Malawi and we got a full page feature in the book that was published there after about the entrepreneurs selected, and this got me a feature on the Humans of my world page. The project noted our contribution to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals namely; zero hunger, descent work and economic growth, industry, innovation and infrastructure, reduced inequalities and responsible consumption and production. The ministry of industry, trade and tourism also recognized the work I am doing such that they gave me opportunity to display my product with all expenses paid by them at the international trade fair in Blantyre, Malawi. This experience connected me to more customers and international export Ready markets awaiting the certification of the product.

This year, I successfully completed the Disrupt!Food! Training which focused on training entrepreneurs to re-think, re-shape, innovate and scale the disruptive capacities of their businesses for a more sustainable agri-food system. Through the training, I have learnt how to develop a business plan based on the Business Canvas Model, access to finance and to prepare a pitch and present it to potential investors. This gas enabled me to open a you tube channel where my pitch presentation about Lian Peanut Butter has been uploaded and can be viewed anytime. In December last year, I was voted as the best young entrepreneur of the year for aflatoxin control in peanut butter production and cleanliness at factory premises by the National Association of Small and Medium Enterprises in Malawi (NASME). The association also appointed me as its youth ambassador.

With these achievements, I applied for a Masters Degree in Agribusiness Management at the Rome Business School and I have been offered a place for the October intake, on a partial scholarship basis.

I have also participated in the initial training workshop on the use of the FAO/WHO draft tool to assess national food control systems which was held in Lilongwe, Malawi in November 2017. Ms Catherine Bessy, food safety and quality officer from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations facilitated the training. Currently, I am part of 18 entrepreneurs who got selected by the African Institute of Corporate Citizenship (AICC) here in Malawi for a project called Young Innovative Farmer which focuses on linking upcoming agriprenuers to already established ones to network and learn from them.

Blue Cloud Limited has created jobs for ten youth and women this far. We have a Facebook page for our Lian Peanut Butter product which I run and use to interact with our customers and get feedback as well us promoting the product and boosting sales. I have managed to write two successful matching grant proposals one for the African Development Bank in collaboration with the Ministry of industry, trade and tourism her in Malawi and the other for giz also here in Malawi.

LINKS

http://youtu.be/HO-EK91ZD-C

Instagram: @dumikananza

Twitter: @dumikananza

 

WHAT THE RWANDA YOUTH CONFERENCE SHOULD ADRESS

In terms of youth employment and entrepreneurship, what systems and mechanisms have been put in place , for example Tech Hubs in ICT where people learn how to code, web development, to to equip the youth in agribusiness with skills and knowledge to take up agriculture and drive significant change in various value chains as a tool for job creation for fellow youth and what other support structures have been developed in order to help them find funding for their ventures and ideas and how to run the ventures as well? Any plans for an Africa youth bank for the continent and in countries which can provide soft loans? How can youth cooperatives enhance entrepreneurship across the continent? What steps are being taking towards industrialization I'm the agriculture sector?

In terms of digital innovation to overcome value chains, my question is what innovations are being created and promoted or need to be created or promoted to enable and enhance the interaction of farmers, processors, regulators and traders, supermarkets in the various value chains in the agriculture sector, what marketing tools and marketing platforms, and linkages are being used? How can we take advantage of mobile money platforms in enhancing productivity, and access to information, how can we take advantage of drones in farming for pest control, increase in production and product delivery? How can we use ICT in hydroponics as a tool for improving data availability in the agriculture sector?

In terms of the future work in rural economy, my question is what business models are being implemented to improve the profitability of the farming and agribusiness in rural communities, what inclusive models are being adopted and created to fit the rural community set up? What is being done to make these models viable enough in creating jobs and mitigating urban migration among the youth from rural areas? Can we adopt the Spader web doctrine and also run each community as a federal system to promote development?

Thanks for providing this platform that I can share my experiences and views in the agriculture sector and I look forward to taking part in this important meeting. I believe that when my factory is certified, I will be able to create over 100 jobs for young people and provide a market for youth and women farmers I'm the value chain, thereby improving their standard of life.

Kind regards.

السيد moise nzanzu

Association des Agriculteurs Sans Frontière
جمهوريّة الكونغو الديمقراطية

ENGLISH TRANSLATION BELOW

Bonjour. Merci de nous avoir consulté dans le cadre de l'atelier en cours porté sur le thème les jeunes dans l'agriculture une solution pour mettre fin à la faim et à la pauvreté en Afrique : mobiliser les jeunes grâce aux technologies de l'information et de la communication et à l'entrepreunariat.

En tant que jeune africain impliqué dans le secteur agricole j'ai  d'abord acquis des connaissances oralement transmises par mes parents qui m'ont permis de commencer de petites activités notamment l'élevage des porcs, des lapins, des poules, des chèvres, et la culture des tomates en serre.

Après mon diplôme d'état je me suis décidé de suivre la faculté des sciences agronomiques afin de rendre mes activités plus professionnelles et rentables. Je suis à présent ingénieur en sciences agronomiques en département de chimie et industries  agricoles à l'institut facultaire des   sciences agronomiques ifa-yangambi/Rdc.J'ai effectué un stage à l'institut national d'études et des recherches agronomiques INERA/Mulungu-Sud Kivu/Rdc. J'ai aussi fait un stage à l'office congolais de contrôle OCC/Goma-Nord Kivu/Rdc et un autre stage au laboratoire de culture des tissus végétaux de la faculté des sciences de l'université de Kisangani-Tshopo Rdc.

Ce qui m'a poussé à m'engager dans le secteur agricole c'est participer à l'autosuffisance alimentaire et à la diversification de l'alimentation  ; développer des techniques agricoles durables tout en améliorant les rendements ; valoriser les produits agricoles locales pour créer la plus-value dans les zones de production et faciliter la conservation des produits alimentaires. Au-delà de tout c'est créer de l'emploi pour les jeunes comme moi à travers l'agribusiness. Sans oublier que la croissance mondiale de la population exigera plus des producteurs à l'avenir et les jeunes africains n'attendent que des investisseurs pour se mettre en valeur et sortir du cercle vicieux des problèmes de développement rural et de la pauvreté.

En effet, en terme des réalisations et histoires de réussites je peux partager les principales qui sont la myciculture, je vend des champignons comestibles. Il y a aussi la mise en place des jardins potagers et constitution de compost efficace à partir de la récupération des déchets organiques de l'élevage, de récolte et de cuisine. On peut citer aussi la transformation des sésames et des céréales, une farine de bouillie à base de mélange de maïs, riz, eleusine, arachide et soja. Pour la bouillie destinée aux malnutries on enrichit avec la farine des grains d'amarante. Enfin je peux aussi citer l'élevage des poules et des porcs.

L'expérience qui m'a aidé dans mon travail c'est le volontariat et l'auto prise en charge, c'est à dire faire de l'argent pour que les gens achètent chez nous et non demander de l'argent pour acheter chez autrui. Le signe de succès c'est le fait que nous soyons des partenaires de construction d'un changement et d'une transformation dans le renforcement des capacités. Pour réussir je fais participer la famille et des amis de mental engagé et émancipé.

J'ai déjà entendu parler d'autres jeunes à Goma /Nord Kivu/Rdc, certains dans la production animale "KIVU CHICKEN". D'autres s'organisent en association de lutte contre la malnutrition en faisant un mélange de bouillie à base de sept céréales. Ils mettent en place aussi des cultures maraîchères dans des champs aux environs de la ville.

Aux experts de la conférence je dirais que les jeunes sont ouverts à la technologie et à l'innovation pour revitaliser leurs communautés mais il leur manque souvent l'orientation, la formation et le soutien nécessaire et les principales contraintes du marché intérieur sont le manque d'infrastructures de marché, de transport et le manque d'information sur les prix. Qu'est ce que les experts pensent pour redresser les  politiques nationales de développement par rapport à ces problèmes et pour que les politiques nationales reconnaissent suffisamment le potentiel des jeunes en tant que moteurs de la croissance et du développement et leur offrent assez d'opportunités de mettre à profit leurs compétences.

A propos de l'avenir du travail agricole je sais que la migration des jeunes vers l'étranger à la recherche des opportunités économiques c'est une perte d'une part de notre force de travail. Que pense les experts sur la production des produits à l'échelle industrielle en Afrique où il y a assez des terres arables cultivables non exploitées. Qu'est-ce que ils pensent pour accompagner les agriculteurs dans le développement pour que leurs activités soient productifs et les conditions de travail favorables.

Hello. Thank you for consulting us in relation to the current workshop on the subject of Youth Employment in Agriculture as a Solid Solution to ending Hunger and Poverty in Africa: engaging through Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and entrepreneurship.

As a young African involved in the agricultural sector, I initially acquired knowledge by word of mouth from my parents, which allowed me to start with small scale activities, such as rearing pigs, rabbits, chickens, goats and tomatoes under glass.

After my state degree, I decided to continue in the faculty of agricultural sciences, so as to make my activities more professional and profitable. At present, I am an engineer in agricultural sciences in the department of chemical and agricultural industries of the Institut Facultaire des Sciences Agronomiques  ifa-yangambi/RDC. I have had a placement at the National Institute of Research and Study in Agronomy at INERA/Mulungu-Sud Kivu/RDC. I have also had a placement at the Congolese office for control OCC/Goma-Nord Kivu/RDC and another placement at the laboratory for vegetable tissue culture of the Faculty of Sciences at the Université de Kisangani-Tshopo (RDC).

What has made me engage in the agricultural sector is being involved in food self-sufficiency and diversification; the development of sustainable agricultural techniques while improving yields; enhancement of local agricultural products to create added-value in the production phases and assist in the conservation of food products.  Above all,  creating employment for young people, like me, through agro-business. Without forgetting that world population growth will demand more producers in the future and young Africans are just awaiting investors to prove their worth and break out of the vicious circle of rural development problems and poverty.

Indeed, in terms of achievements and success stories, I can share the main ones which are fungiculture, I sell edible mushrooms. There is also the establishment of market gardens and making compost efficiently after recovering the organic waste from animals, harvest and the kitchen. One can also mention the transformation of sesame and cereals, and flour for porridge made of a mixture of maize, rice, millet, peanuts and soya. The porridge used for the malnourished, is enriched with a kind of flour made from amaranth seeds. Finally, I can also mention the rearing of poultry and pigs.

The experience that has helped me in my work is determination and independence that is to say to make money because people buy our products and not to ask for money to buy from others. The sign of success is the fact that we are partners in building change and transformation by strengthening abilities. To succeed, I involved my family and friends with the same committed and liberated outlook.

I have already heard of other young in Goma /Nord Kivu/RDC, some in the production establishment "KIVU CHICKEN." Others have organized an association for the fight against malnutrition by making a mixture of porridge based on seven cereals. They also established market gardens in the fields around the town.

To the experts at the conference I would say that the young are open to technology and innovation to revitalize their communities, but they often lack guidance, training and the necessary support, and the main constraints of the domestic markets are the lack of market infrastructure, transport and the lack of information on pricing. What do the experts think about adjusting the national policies for development in relation to these problems, so that national policies sufficiently recognize the potential of the young as drivers of knowledge and development and offer them enough opportunities to profit from their abilities?

In relation to the future of agricultural work, I know that the migration of young people overseas seeking economic opportunities is a loss of a part of our workforce. What do the experts think about the production of products on an industrial scale in Africa, where there is much arable land still not exploited?  What do they think about supporting farmers with development so that their activities are productive and their working conditions favorable?

My name is Nawsheen Hosenally, co-Founder of Agribusiness TV and Managing Director of Agribusiness Shop, based in Burkina Faso. Many thanks to FAO and partners for this online consultation to hear from us. Below are my responses to the questions set for this discussion.

1. Experience as a Youth in the Agriculture Sector

How would you describe your experience as an Africa youth engaged in the agriculture sector in your country? What motivated you to engage into the agriculture sector?

My first contact with agriculture was at University for my undergraduate degree in Mauritius. Like many other youth, I did not plan to get into this sector or had a vision that I want to be a researcher, extension officer or agripreneur someday – I did not even know about these jobs, since they were not enough promoted or valorized at that time. I just wanted to do something different and chose to study agriculture. My passion for agriculture grew during my practical classes, internships and jobs in different areas: research, extension, sales, marketing, facilitation etc. In the process, I got interested in ICTs and their application in the agricultural sector. I started a blog and was writing about the agricultural sector and my field trips in Mauritius. Then I won essay and blog competitions on youth in agriculture organized by CTA from 2010-2012. From that point, I knew that I have a passion in digital communications in agriculture and have been working in this area in different capacities since my graduation in 2011. My contribution for this consultation is focused on my experience with Agribusiness TV and Agribusiness Shop in Burkina Faso.

Agribusiness TV is a web TV which aims at using videos as a promotion tool to (re)valorise agriculture and make the sector more attractive to youth by showcasing success stories of young agricultural entrepreneurs and their innovations in Africa. The media was launched in May 2016, with the support of CTA. Agribusiness TV is available on its web and mobile applications in English and French versions.

Two years later, we created Agribusiness Shop, a physical and online shop whereby we market locally transformed agricultural products from young entrepreneurs and women associations from Burkina Faso, Benin, Cote d’Ivoire and Mali.

2. Major Achievements and Success Stories

What have been your major achievements? Do you have any experience or innovative ways that have helped you in your work that you would want to share? Do you have a success story – either your own or any other that you are aware of - of youth engaged in agriculture in your country? What is the story?

Major achievements for Agribusiness TV:

  • Production of over 100 videos since its launch from 12 African countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Mauritius, Niger, Senegal and Togo. Success stories of these entrepreneurs can be viewed on our website (http://agribusinesstv.info/en/) or YouTube Channel (https://www.youtube.com/AgribusinessTV).
  • The videos produced and disseminated have been viewed over 7 million times.
  • Our network of young entrepreneurs and youth in agriculture is constantly growing. Currently, we have 174,000 fans on Facebook, 13,000 subscribers on YouTube, and our mobile apps have had over 7,000 downloads.
  • Agribusiness TV also won several awards and distinctions including the WSIS project prize in the media category organized by ITU in 2017, and the First Prize of the Francophone Media Innovation Award organised by the International Francophone Organisation (OIF), Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and Radio France Internationale (RFI) to “encourage new forms of media” in the Frenchspeaking world.
  • After 2 years of operation, Agribusiness TV is no more running on grants, but rather working as a service provider in video production on agriculture in Africa.
  • We have recently partnered with a local TV station in Burkina Faso, whereby a bimonthly TV magazine called “Voir c’est croire” (seeing is believing) will be broadcasted as from October 2018. This will enable us to reach out to youth who are not connected to the Internet from the different countries that have Canal+ cable television channel

Another achievement was been the setting up of Agribusiness Shop through self-funding which is operational since April 2018. The initial products sold in the shop were from entrepreneurs that were showcased in videos produced by Agribusiness TV. The shop represents a new marketing channel for young entrepreneurs and women associations. It also brings locally transformed products closer to the consumers, who before had access to these products only during fairs and expos. Over 60 products are available currently at Agribusiness Shop and we are gradually increasing the number of products and suppliers.

3. What the Rwanda Youth Conference Should Address

If given an opportunity, what question would you ask the experts at the Rwanda Youth conference on each of the three sub-themes –

a). Youth Employment and Entrepreneurship,

With efforts from different stakeholders over the years, the issue of making agriculture more attractive to youth is slowly being addressed. From my own observation and experience, I see every day that youth have an interest to venture in agribusiness/agricultural entrepreneurship, but many of them don’t know where to start from and in which sub-sector to venture. How do we move from awareness raising to actually have enterprises created and upscaled in a sustainable manner? In my opinion, rather than aiming to support many small initiatives to get youth involved in agribusiness, it will be better to identify existing enterprises that have proved to be working and support these entrepreneurs to scale-up their business. In-turn, these entrepreneurs can mentor the new ones venturing in the sector. All these would require good coordination and collaboration among different stakeholders.

b). Digital Innovation to Overcome Agriculture Value-Chain Constraints

ICTs have huge potential to make agriculture more productive and profitable. However, over the years, many applications are being or have been developed through hackathons and other competitions, but very few of them are actually able to go beyond break-even point because their business models are flawed. How do we measure success from the ICT4Ag initiatives that currently exist? What should be the indicators? Who are those who are still operating without grants and funds from competitions? How did they make it? When it comes to digital solutions, we have to be careful about sustainability, which is currently a huge problem.

c). Future of Work in Rural Economy.

Rural areas have their own reality, but challenges exist even in cities. In entrepreneurship, it’s important to have a good business environment. When deprived from access to good roads, electricity, Internet, and services such as banks, you cannot be competitive on the market. Hence, these must be taken into account when the roadmap is made during the conference.

I'll end by thanking CTA and FAO for inviting Agribusiness TV to the conference. We'll contribute more at the event.

Best,

Nawsheen

Hello everyone.

I am Zahra GRANA a PhD student from Morocco working on plant genetics and plant genetic resources characterization.

I came from a farming background family. But during my studies also I have noted the importance of this field and how much it needs to be developed in order to increase the food production to fulfill the national food need.

To achieve the goals that will help to develop the agriculture sector, the government is providing financial help to the graduated student. To set up their own agri-business company.

Since we have a family land in cultivated region in Morocoo I was thinking about building a small family company as a start. Especially that my PhD studies helped me to gather a lot of experience about farming. But yet is not sufficient to have a large knowledge about leading a company.

This kind of conference can be very helpful to see the challenges and the difficulties that other people already went through, to have an idea about the financial issues.Even this online discussion was very helpful for me to know a lot of information about the state of the agriculture sector in different countries in Africa.

By setting up my own Agri-business I am not just helping myself, I am also helping the development of my country, and providing new job opportunities. The company can also collaborate with local farmers and share the experiences that can be very useful.

In this context that the expect that workshop could provide us expert advice on entrepreneurship and the needed training, especially integrating digital innovations, which could be helpful to the younger generations.

Youth empowerment through agricultural support and training as been tested in the last few years as the only sustainable solution to unemployment which increase poverty level in Africa and globally. Once we can tap into the potentials odf agriculture as youth we can be able to bring a shift that will end hunger. As organisation in Nigeria, we take a proactive action to support fresh graduate to embrace agribusiness.

LET US Take a  short look on Nutrition facts OF RWANDANS

Why  Rwandan youth as well as  all African youth are needed  in Agriculture transformation ?

"Youth are not delivering back to the community after their studies"

/ Four children out of Ten are stunted  /

"It's a shame for Rwandan youth to live with stunted children within our households"

In My country, Rwanda ,   we say Youth as agents of change in agribusiness, youth as the building power of the country.

so through those slogans, it is the task of policy makers, All agriculture actors should  facilitate youth projects and elaborate clear strategies to overcome the above challenges, mainly by

1) Highlighting youth perspectives about the development of  the agriculture  value chain

2) Engaging youth into the decision panel of agriculture policies

3) Delivering quality education that respond to the community challenges

4) Sustainability of youth projects where ever started instead to achieve food security

 

Thanks

MIZERO JEAN FELIX

Local food Consultant

CEO and Founder of NUTRITION ADVISORY COUNCIL RWANDA LTD

A University graduate, It was understandable in our culture and though to see him in Agriculture primary production. But I started my agriculture career from second year of secondary school; here we did it as hobby (production of potatoes, small quantity of beans), we didn't have an ambition of producing profitably.

When I was 17, my father proposed me to start to crop Macadamia and learnt about them. It was discouraged to plant a crop of between 4-5 year for first production and he motivated me that It's for future cash in as well as feeding the future people as we increase and the land stay.

As an African youth engaged in Agriculture, I see that agriculture in Rwanda is a potential sector for forging money, but we hindered by limited cropping land, selected semens, conservation of naturally resource, dense population, financial resources (Investment),. We have a big market of agriculture produces but we don't have a good strategies of reaching. Another challenge we face is that market prices is not fixed. It fluctuates every season.

What motivate me to engage in agriculture is to feed my people. If there is no food even the life stop. The primary fuel for human life is food. The second is that as people increase, the food consumption also increase. Today, in Africa most young people look for smart (office) jobs. Agriculture is done by olden, they need someone who will get the heritage of producing for human consumption. Agriculture is my hobby. I will die by doing it.

Today, I have a farm of 97 macadamia trees. I had it before since 2004. I produced little amount of macadamia nuts in 2015. I flied to Israel for agriculture training and I appraised more skills related to archard production and I transferred into my plantation. Fortunately I shifted from 78 Kgs to 400 Kgs within two years, by next year 2019 I believe to harvest 2T. As experience, don't need to achieve more within short time. Enjoy the journey and gain more after. Work hard like slavery and life like King.

a). Youth Employment and Entrepreneurship:

  • what do they expect to do to motivate young graduates to engage in agriculture sector?
  • How do they assimilate the problem of youth unemployment situation and how they will contribute to alleviate it?
  • What can we do to upgrade the agriculture wages?

b) Digital Innovation to Overcome Agriculture Value-Chain Constraints

  • I will ask them if they are ready to produce a well and easy manipulated software for value chain that should help farmers to access all necessary information related to their daily activities.

c). Future of Work in Rural Economy - of the conference?

  • The contribution of experts to shed down all necessary framework of developing rural areas economically through the agriculture.
  • Their contribution to the development of the agriculture of small scale farmers.

Thanks