Firstly, l would like to thank all those who have contributed to this very interesting, important and timely discussion, l am learning a lot!
Qn: What post-capacity development support do the youth need?
“Developing the knowledge, skills, and talent of youth will also require investing in smallholder agriculture in order to provide successful examples and viable livelihoods for all future generation” In addition:
- More Mentors and Role models! Youth in Agriculture need More Mentors and Role models. In Africa, widely loved and supported by many youth is the game of Soccer. Ask me or any other youth about our Role models in soccer, commonly known and mentioned are the likes of Kalusha Bwanda from Zambia, Jay Jay Okocha from Nigeria, Bruce Gobbler from Zimbabwe among many…However, ask me or any other African youth about our role models in Agriculture, honestly many will not be able to point at one. To engage more youth in Agriculture and to ensure sustainability of CD initiatives, we need to have more Mentors and Role models in Agriculture who can inspire the young generation to stay in Agriculture.
- Encourage Mentorship Programmes – visiting and communicating with experienced farmers for mentoring opportunities and liaison with experts for example Extension Officers.
- Creation of knowledge sharing and exchange platforms .These are platforms where youths can convene regularly to share experiences and lessons learnt in their respective agricultural projects, this could improve their knowledge and motivate them to stay and continue doing well in Agriculture. Example ZFC –Young Farmers club in Zimbabwe, which has managed to successfully host the annual Youth-Agric summits in Zimbabwe since 2012.
- To encourage those youth already engaged in agriculture, create producer competition amongst youths and source prizes to lure more youths.
- To improve youth access to financing options with reasonable conditions set up Revolving Funds Loan Facility
- Exchange visits: Establish: Youth Agricultural Exchange Programs: South-South Youth in Agriculture Programs and North-South Youth in Agriculture exchange programs.
- Establish regular feedback mechanism to maintain the interests amongst the stakeholders and the youth involved in the CD initiatives. ( CD initiatives should never be once and for all activities)
Qn: What can the youth do to support each other in developing their skills and capacities?
“Inspiration without adequate tools is unfruitful, gather up the necessary information, skills before taking up the correct action. Plan adequately.”
- The starting point is to be organized into vibrant youth structures from the villages, through the wards, districts, provincial to national levels to ensure legitimacy and credibility. Establish and utilize Young people’s resource centres at grassroots level.
- Creation of Young farmers forums for knowledge sharing awareness campaigns and creating partnerships through Young Farmers Clubs (YFCs)
- Capitalise on Social Capital: Network and sharing the work they are doing with others “Networking is a key in taking action” Working together and linking with each other, sharing resources through YFCs, Cooperations, and partnership
- Collective marketing and advertising of young farmers produce.
- Frequent interaction through social media sites for example Facebook page, WhatsApp, YouTube and twitter.
- Develop young farmers business ethics such as commitment, trustworthy and accountability
QN: What enabling environment is needed to ensure sustainability of youth in agriculture capacity development initiatives?
Recommendations:
- Key amongst all: Ensure Equal and equitable distribution of land for both male and female young farmers. Consider revisiting the old and outdated land tenure systems across Africa. Most land is still in the hands of the older people, who in some cases are not utilising it, and many have multiple (5-10 farms) and men usually own this.
- Need to acknowledge the heterogeneity of African youth in Agriculture: This is crucial and key when planning for any CD initiative. Need to be cognizant of issues such as gender, class, tribe, level of education, location among these youth inter alias. These heterogeneous groups of youth will require different support prior, during and post the CD initiative/s.
- Support more Agripreneurship projects so that the youth will be able to directly put all things learnt into practice for a price. We recently launched the Agripreneurship alliance to support African Youth in Agriculture. I am among the founding members of the organisation , for more visit our webpage here
- Facilitate the development of vibrant youth structures.
- Inclusion of youth representatives in all agricultural related decision making forums, include youth representatives in all agricultural related decision making forums.
- When it comes to policymaking and dialogue- Get rid of youth side events: We should be focusing on inter-generational work. Currently young farms are not given spaces, where and when they are given, in most cases they are given their own spaces, but at the cost of not being in the room for the “grown-up” discussions. Youth in Agriculture should interact and inform decision-making on thematic issues, so should be involved in all discussions.
- Recognise Youth who are already champions in Agriculture, support and empower them to inspire the rest – making the youth part of the solution not the problem
- Promote sustainable Mechanisation for young people in agriculture. Form strategic partnerships with private institutions to support youth with sustainable smallholder agricultural equipment.
- Promote Innovative Extension support mechanisms such as -Sight learning, Young Master Farmer, Exchange visit and field days.
- Valuate young farmers assets and use them as collateral to acquire loans, and secure markets and create young farmers venture capital fund with favourable repayment terms
- Strengthen YFCs platforms for sustainable farmer to farmer, and stakeholder to farmer linkages (contract farming)
- Establish Young Farmers Resource centres or hubs to improve information access to lower level structures.
- Many now believe that to lure and keep youth in agriculture, we should make agriculture, “cool and sexy.” I would like to add, with specific reference to Africa, where agriculture is still dominantly a rural activity, we also need to make the rural areas “cool and sexy “Making the youth who have gone through CD initiatives to voluntarily stay in the rural areas and be engaged in agriculture, rather than migrating to the cities.
- Establish nationwide demonstration plots for young farmers clubs.
- Leveraging on technology for research on production, information gaps, and constant young farmer interaction.
- Improve ICTs uptake amongst youths through agriculture applications etc.
- Ignite the imagination of young people to seize new technologies to become proactive and engaged.
For now, l will end with this quote from the FAO director General:
“A sustainable world can only be achieved with the full engagement of Young people, they must feel integrated, and believe that a more peaceful and prosperous world is possible. Building the Zero Hunger Generation requires building a new generation of farmers and businessmen and women in Africa.” Jose Graziano da Silva
**Views are personal.
Г-н Innocent Chamisa