Глобальный форум по продовольственной безопасности и питанию (Форум FSN)

Development of youth capacities in agricultural opportunities is a good initiative. However, though there are numerous initiatives out there that are beneficial to Nigerian youths, quite a number of youths have been trained on Agribusiness, many have even developed good business plans on various innovations. But unfortunately, these innovations have remained in the pipeline due to lack of fund and good infrastructural facilities. Therefore, capacity development most be coupled with access to finance and seed capitals for start-ups and existing businesses. State and Federal government should develop irrigation schemes/ rehabilitate old irrigation facilities across the nation, provide electricity, mechanization, good road, clean potable water, affordable or free internet services in rural areas. 80% arable land in Nigeria remain unused as a result of high cost of land clearing operations, government in partnership with private sector should clear up this land and relax the land holding policies, thereby making it available at little or no cost to youth that are interested in Agriculture

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:

1. 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.
2. Encourage Mentorship Programmes – visiting and communicating with experienced farmers for mentoring opportunities and liaison with experts for example Extension Officers.
3. 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.
4. To encourage those youth already engaged  in agriculture, create producer competition amongst youths and source prizes to lure more youths.
5. To improve youth access to financing options with reasonable conditions set up Revolving Funds Loan Facility
6.  Exchange visits: Establish: Youth Agricultural Exchange Programs: South-South Youth in Agriculture Programs and North-South Youth in Agriculture exchange programs.
7. 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.

Many thanks to all participants for the very valuable contributions posted so far and many more are certainly to be registered. Issues to be dealt with are very clear and I want to believe that through collaboration/partnerships a lot can be achieved in addressing them, building on/learning from what already works in some parts of the continent and beyond. 

Please allow me to share this very informative publication jointly produced by FAO, CTA and IFAD: Youth and Agriculture: Key Challenges and Concrete Solutions http://www.fao.org/3/a-i3947e.pdf  

It highlights various challenges (relevant for this Forum's topic and most of which - if not all - have been posted here) and, most importantly, proposes some solutions with replicable success stories. It is a very important guiding material that we can all make good use of and let's also share it widely.  

At FAO, we look forward to keep strengthening collaboration with partner-institutions, among which youth organisations, as we take forward this very important agenda for Africa.  

You know ... farming is a business and the farm owner must consider that he has a business in his hands. Young Africans must believe in agriculture and its potential to make them rich. Governments, in turn, need to put in place economic policies that allow for much of their business viability and help them grow and become multinationals in the agri-food sector that is a sector of the future. world continues to grow and the primary need to eat is greater than ever in the African continent where so far there are thousands of women and children who do not eat their hunger. 

Most of our youths have the agribusiness skills. One of the problems youth face in Africa is the initiatives and access to easy process loan programs, accessing loans in Africa is one of the hardest things and When someone is opposed to get the loan it comes out with higher interest rates to pay back ,our financial institutions needs to be more effective and flexible with the loan process, 

English version below 

1. parlant des principaux défis rencontrés par les jeunes africains à l'issu des initiatives de développement des capacités axées sur les jeunes dans le secteur agricole, ici il sied de noter que les jeunes entrepreneurs œuvrant dans le domaine de l'agriculture en milieu rural sont heurté à plusieurs défis qui nécessitent d'être relevés notamment le manque ou l’insuffisance des capitaux pour commencer les initiatives au préalable.

2. l'inaccessibilité au microcrédit pour soutenir les projets de l'agriculture et la pisciculture ainsi que l'élevage; le manque des garanties exigés par les banque pour accéder aux microcrédits.

3. les difficultés liées à la politique d'accès aux partenariats des organisations internationaux pour la coopération technique et une assistance financière pour l'acheminement des projets conçus sur le terrain.

4. Le manque d'accompagnement des gouvernements africains, des secteurs privés; des initiatives des jeunes entrepreneurs dans le domaine de l'agriculture d'où le chômage en grande échelle.

***

1. Regarding the main challenges faced by young Africans in the context of initiatives for capacities development aimed at the youth in the agricultural sector, here it is convenient to mention that the young entrepreneurs working in the agricultural sector in the rural areas face several challenges which need to be raised, in particular the lack or insufficiency of capital to begin the projects in the first place.

2. Difficulties in accessing micro credit to sustain their projects in agriculture and pisciculture, as well as, animal husbandry; the lack of the guarantees which are demanded by banks to obtain access to micro credits.

3. The difficulties related to the policy governing access to partnerships with international organizations for technical cooperation and financial assistance for the starting up of projects conceived in the field.

4. The lack of support from African governments and the private sector; lack of initiatives for young entrepreneurs in the agricultural sector resulting in widespread unemployment.

What are the biggest challenges youth in Africa face after going through youth-specific capacity development initiatives in agriculture?

Corruption and a bad case of misplaced priorities. A lot of youths interested in agriculture still need a sustenance during the start-up phase, in the absence of which t they settle for white collar jobs and end up lingering past the age of youth benefits.

What are the examples of existing post-capacity development sustainability initiatives for youth in agriculture in Africa? What works and what does not? Are there any success stories and good practices that can be shared?

I love a project between Leventis and FG in Nigeria here they run a one year internship, all-expense paid for the youth the challenge is that most qualified youths (interested and  passionate about agriculture) do not have the pre requisite of farm land and farm experience. In my opinion, it is quite foolish to be offering a one year training and expecting an applicant to be experience already, if a youth meets all their criteria, such youth would not be needing training, it is a similar situation with most agriculture support programs. you find out most beneficiaries are well positioned more as pen farmers (only farm with keypads and never actually see a farm operation) or youths looking to kill time pending when they get a white collar job not he actual intended beneficiaries.

What post-capacity development support do the youth need? What can the youth do to support each other in developing their skills and capacities?

I personally think vocation agriculture schools should be established in all states, where possible in each LGA and youths from junior Secondary Schools should be able to enrol even its just a summer holiday program. This would help many interested get familiar with modern systems like urban sack farming, organic farming etc...the serious ones can then be given access to lands till then can be independent.

What enabling environment is needed to ensure sustainability of youth in agriculture capacity development initiatives?

A serious reduction in the bureaucratic system, if a youth could pick up a form and be sure of been attended to, instead of going from one office to the other at government establishment with no result. I have mentioned before, the need to reduces and possibly eliminate monetising agriculture benefits...if a body wants to help, bring us machineries that can be leased, or given out, provide trucks for transporting goods on a schedule from farming communities to major cities/markets. Money in its raw element is yet to be of any good to young farmer

Is there a role for modern technologies, including Information and Communication Technologies, in sustaining capacity development initiatives?

A lot of youths are designing solutions for agriculture but they do not see the light of day because no one is listening, everyone is holding seminars but what is the support/feedback platform when a youth keys in and develops a solution for the sector. Instead, the elites try to buy the apps right off them before assisting them with anything thus discouraging them and causing them to look at more viable and flexible sectors like entertainment

Hello this is a wonderful topic and am sure every active advocate for youth participation in agriculture would want to drop a few words. I would start my little contribution by giving my view on this question.

What should be the nature of post-capacity development support to these youth in order to retain them in agriculture, and to ensure the sustainability and long-term impact of youth-specific CD initiatives?

After every CD initiative, the expected outcomes should be managed considering the following factors: Long term ability of the agribusiness to thrive, start-up challenges prevailing in the locality where the business is setup, marketability of the intended business with regards to import substitution and quality of harvested or processed material.

I want to assume two factors can help keep youths in agribusiness after capacity building or development training and they are:

1. Follow-ups: If these youths have been encouraged to take-up careers in the agricultural sector, and their capacities to make impact in the sector has been developed then, the organizers of the CD training must create avenues to follow–up these new startups.

2. Empowerment: If a person is trained on how to cultivate cassava for 3months then he is left alone to startup with little or no funding, am certain he would lose interest after the first 2 weeks if funds to implement the knowledge gained and the ideas that sprouted during or after the training. Provision for empowerment must be made alongside CD training plans.

In other words the post CD activities would determine how well the CD would be used to impact on agriculture.

1. What are the biggest challenges youth in Africa face after going through youth-specific capacity development initiatives in agriculture?

i. Finance: knowledge is power but how many people have been able to use their knowledge to generate wealth. A job seeking youth who is not an agricultural graduate is trained to practice agriculture and not empowered to get land, seeds, fertilizer and tools. No matter how impactful the CD sessions were the zeal to implement the ideas and knowledge would die off faster than it came.

ii. Infrastructure: We have lots of challenges with post-harvest handling of agricultural materials. Good road networks, standard farm structures in rural areas, farm tools and other basic need to enable youths make honest gains from carrying out farm work must be made available.

iii. Markets: Local farmers have issues with imported goods, local prices are higher, processing skills are poor or non-existing hence a sizable amount of the farm products go to waste.

iv. Rural Development: Asking a graduate to relocate to a farming community which is miles away from the rural area that is just bearable for the youth is a difficult thing to ask in this age of cinemas, internet, etc.

2. What are the examples of existing post-capacity development sustainability initiatives for youth in agriculture in Africa?

i. Grants and Loans: Bank of Industry (for processors) loans, Bank of Agriculture loans, USAID grants, Tony Elumelu Foundation grants etc. are available for young entrepreneurs in Nigeria and Africa.

What works and what does not?

i. Selection system: we have some organization using high tech selection systems that have breed seasoned agripreneurs while others have selected job seeking graduates who have little or no flair for agriculture.

ii. Focus should be on Agriculture students’ right from campus. They should be nurtured systematically to love what they do over time till they graduate. Most would create jobs in the agricultural sector before becoming graduates.

3. What post-capacity development support do the youth need?

1. Mentoring
2. Farm to factory support
3. Government intervention support
4. Access to basic farm facilities

What can the youth do to support each other in developing their skills and capacities?

i. Interstate/ Region/ Country Collaboration

ii. Create Networks

iii. Meet often offline and on line to share ideas, challenges and proffer solutions.

4. What enabling environment is needed to ensure sustainability of youth in agriculture capacity development initiatives?

i. Access to startup finance

ii. Mentoring

iii. Entrepreneurship support follow-up

iv. Business friendly government policies aimed at enabling SMEs grow

v. Rural Development.

5. Is there a role for modern technologies, including Information and Communication Technologies, in sustaining capacity development initiatives?

Yes there is a major role for ICT and modern technologies. Educated farmers want online store for agricultural products, online markets that are secure, apps for measuring starch content, moisture content, desirable properties, apps for networking youths all over the world in same line on the agriculture food chain, apps that enable them have access to info on outbreak of pest and disease, new varieties of seeds, new processing methods, user friendly data collection apps, easy to use monitoring and evaluation apps, daily water requirement apps.

Lots of work has been done to ensure that youths build careers that thrive in the agricultural sector but more can still be done.

Akinremi Julian

Food, Agricultural and Environmental Engineer, Agripreneur and Agribusiness Consultant.

CEO Fourteen Farms/ YPard Local Rep (Osun State)

twitter: @akinremijulian

@FourteenFarmsng

instagram: @fourteenfarmsng

linkedin: @akinremijulian

Facebook: @akinremijulian

facebook.com/fourteenfarms/

English translation below 

La question 1

La méconnaissance de l'agriculture par les jeunes, pas de véritable politique agricole de nos gouvernants. Pas de suivie des projets.

L'agriculture doit être instaurée dans le cursus scolaires afin que les jeunes aient une notion de l'agriculture.

Pour améliorer l'entrepreneuriat agricole des jeunes, il faut un délai d'apprentissage raisonnable.

***

Question 1

The ignorance of young people about agriculture, no real agricultural policy on the part of our Governments. No follow up of projects.

Agriculture must be included in the school curriculum so that young people may have some idea of what it is.

In order to improve the agricultural business startups of young people, a reasonable period of apprenticeship is necessary.

What post-capacity development support do the youth need?

The post capacity development support that youth need is mentorship and coaching. There must be a systematic guidance to the ventures or businesses young people undertake. My work as a mentor under Next Generation Cocoa Youth Program (MASO) project funded by MasterCard Foundation's Youth Forward Initiative and implemented by Solidaridad and Ashesi University in Ghana has shown that guidance and direction for youth helps to bring out excellent results. Youth in rural areas who had little idea about business where taken through a Business Academy to acquire skills and knowledge to identify business opportunities in their environment. Coaches and Mentors are then introduced to them to share their experiences in business start-up, motivate and build the confident of mentees. Through this successful businesses were established by young people in their communities.

What can the youth do to support each other in developing their skills and capacities?

As mentioned by Halimatou youths need to form networks. Youth network such as Young Professionals for Agricultural Development (YPARD) need to be supported financially to facilitate the creation of opportunities and relevant networks for young people. The YPARD Ghana chapter recently organized an Agribusiness Networking Cocktail to bring together various companies and organizations in agriculture and agribusiness. All drinks, meat and items for the event were sourced locally from young agripreneurs. Through the event, Goat Master Ltd (www.goatmastersgh.com) the suppliers of Goat Kebab for the event has secured the opportunity to serve his goat kebab to the staff of BEIGE, one of the leading investment companies in Ghana. The Agribusiness Network Cocktail is part of a programme called Farmers Connect under the Future Farmers Initiative (FFI) designed by YPARD Ghana and its partners.

Youth networks must also serve as a link between the young agriprenuers, authorities and agencies of governments. The various youth groups existing in any particular country must join forces to push government and authorities to release funds for youth enterprises with flexible payment terms.