Henry, from Zambia
Youth are a key opportunity that can drive growth in the agriculture sector in African. Yet many of them are reluctant to engage in agriculture. Part of the challenge is that they view agriculture only as 'farming', which they see to be laborious and backward. Educational curricular also help shape this perception. Many of the youth see themselves as 'employees' and not entrepreneurs and employers. The conference needs to address the whole issue of curricular to help shape youth perceptions towards being employers. Further, research plays a key role to discover and monitor these perceptions. As such it’s important to invest in socio-economic research on youth and agriculture and support their engagement in different value chains.
M. Henry Machina