المنتدى العالمي المعني بالأمن الغذائي والتغذية

Hello Jacqueline,

In order to get rural adolescent girls to participate in vocational training and preparing for decent work in agriculture, it is necessary to involve their parents and guardians, especially gaining the consent and support of their mothers and female heads in the home. Not to be overlooked also are the fathers. Many rural communities in Nigeria are patriarchal hence the need for fathers or household male heads to be involved too. A potentially useful approach could be agricultural cooperatives formed by rural folks and that includes adult men and women with participation of male and female adolescents as volunteers.

This way, young ones are mentored by their parents/guardians who would also look out for their interests, and likely warding off child labour.

In my earlier comment, I mentioned ‘impact camps’ sited in rural communities. The camps would provide such cooperatives access to its facilities, vocational training and professional courses, etc.

Involving parents/guardians in projects geared at making agriculture attractive to young people would also serve as psychological boost to the adolescents; for the girls, their mothers’ participation would be motivating; for the boys, their fathers’ involvement.

One challenge faced by rural boys of the age group 15 – 17 years, is peer influence (both direct and indirect). In my experience, I notice that many want to be able to have a ‘good life’ like their peers who move to the city. To persuade them successfully to take up agriculture in the village requires that they are able to see a good future for themselves by pursuing that course. I elaborated more on how to make agriculture attractive for young boys and girls, in my earlier comment.

Best regards,

Jessy Hims.