Promoting youth engagement and employment in agriculture and food systems - e-consultation on the Report’s scope, proposed by the HLPE Steering Committee
During its 46th Plenary Session (14 – 18 October 2019), the UN Committee on World Food Security (CFS) requested its High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition (HLPE) to produce a report entitled “Promoting youth engagement and employment in agriculture and food systems”, to be presented in 2021 (the request is provided below) [1].
The report, which will provide recommendations to the CFS workstream “Promoting youth engagement and employment in agriculture and food systems”, will:
- Review the opportunities for, and constraining factors to youth engagement and employment in agriculture and food systems, including youth access to:
- Knowledge, information and education;
- Productive land, natural resources and inputs;
- Productive tools, extension, advisory and financial services;
- Training, education and mentorship programmes;
- Innovation and new technologies;
- Markets;
- Policy-making processes.
- Examine aspects related to employment, salaries, and working conditions;
- Review rules, regulations and policy approaches, including territorial approaches, aimed at addressing the complexity of structural economic, cultural, social and spatial transformations currently taking place globally;
- Explore the potential of food systems and enhanced rural-urban linkages to provide more and better jobs for women and youth.
To implement this CFS request, the HLPE is launching an open e-consultation to seek views and comments on the following scope and building blocks of the report, outlined below.
Please note that in parallel to this scoping consultation, the HLPE is calling for interested experts to candidate to the Project Team for this report. The call for candidature is open until 21 January 2020. Read more here.
Proposed draft Scope of the HLPE Report on “Promoting youth engagement and employment in agriculture and food systems” by the HLPE Steering Committee
Engagement of youth (both women and men) is key in making the transition towards sustainable and healthy agriculture and food systems. It is estimated that more than 2 billion children will be born worldwide between 2015 and 2030 (UN, 2015 [2]). The majority of these children will be in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, where agriculture and food systems constitute the largest employer, and where the needs in terms of availability, access and quality of food and nutrition are greatest. There is a large untapped reservoir of employment opportunities in the agri-food sector which is increasingly pinched by significant labour constraints in many areas of the world. Yet, due to limited access to land, natural resources, infrastructure, finance, technology, markets, knowledge, and poor working conditions the sector cannot be considered attractive and sustainable for youth. There is a high incidence of informality, casual labour, underemployment, child labour, forced labour, working poverty, and among the lowest rates of access to social protection and unionisation in the agricultural sector. Quite often, young women, once married, are mostly engaged in farming, often for subsistence, while young men exit the sector in search of other income opportunities and greater autonomy. Discriminatory traditional and cultural norms leave women disadvantaged as regards access to productive resources, limiting their ability to innovate on their farms. It is then important to better understand aspirations of the youth, differentiated by gender, class, ethnicity and other forms of difference, to enable sustainable food systems.
As the global average age of these farmers approaches 60 years, it is essential to develop systems, policies, and programmes that encourage the engagement of youth in agriculture and food systems and related professions, including research and innovation. These should provide spaces and mechanisms for participation, and opportunities for entrepreneurship. Traditional subsistence agriculture is not attractive to the youth and it is essential to transform agriculture and food systems in a way that is intellectually challenging and economically rewarding. Retaining youth in agriculture also requires improving living standards and quality of services in rural areas and mid-sized town.
Engagement and leadership of young women and men in agriculture and food systems is essential as youth need to be recognized as agents of change and not (only) as receivers of assistance and support. Youth participation in decision making related to agriculture and food systems requires changes to the enabling environment, through the institution of specific mechanisms to allow the voices of youth to be heard; and recognition of the social, economic, cultural and political status of youth, to allow them to fully participate. The legislative and institutional environment influences the respect of young people’s rights, working conditions, job creation and youth engagement. Coherence between sectoral and employment policies and legislation needs to be promoted to ensure that there are no conflicting objectives in different policies, and that policies reinforce one another.
The objectives of this report are to better understand the gender differentiated reasons for the limited engagement of youth in agriculture and food systems, to identify new opportunities for youth to improve their efficiency and sustainability, and to provide recommendations to facilitate their active engagement and employment. These recommendations will be in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and in particular with SDG2, SDG1, SDG8, SDG5, SDG9, and SDG10, and with other global and regional level agreements.
During this e-consultation, the HLPE Steering Committee welcomes your feedback. In particular, you are invited to:
- Share your comments on the objectives and content of this report as outlined above;
- Share good practices and successful experiences to improve youth engagement in the governance of agriculture and food systems; to address obstacles hindering youth ability to engage as entrepreneurs, and to generate decent work opportunities for youth in agriculture and food systems, at different scales (from local to global) and by different stakeholders (public, private or civil society), including with respect to legislation and the enabling environment;
- Share the most recent references that should be considered in this report;
- Provide feedback on the following questions, identifying any gender issues, to guide the development of the report:
- Why is there a need to promote youth engagement and employment in agriculture and food systems? What are the key issues and opportunities?
- How do the evolution and transitions of agriculture, food systems and nutrition affect youth engagement and employment? How can agriculture and food systems employment become more attractive for youth, especially considering the rural-urban continuum? What would be needed to improve standards of living and services in rural areas and mid-sized towns, to retain youth and young families?
- What governance transformations are necessary to enable and encourage youth participation in agriculture and food systems, and what actions are required to equip youth with the necessary skills and confidence in fully engaging in these decision-making processes?
- What are the most promising pathways to transform current agriculture and the food systems in developing countries to make them more attractive to the youth?
- What are the best strategies for fully engaging youth, in particular young women, in opportunities to acquire adequate skills and learning opportunities to further develop their knowledge and enable them to be leaders in innovative agriculture and the transformation of food systems?
- What are the most appropriate policies to remove obstacles to empower youth initiate and/or upscale activities in agriculture and related services, in the food supply chain, in agroecology, and in the food environment, as well as in nutrition and innovation, in accordance to their skills, aspirations, assets and contexts?
- What are the most appropriate policies and initiatives to facilitate the education-to-labour market transition and youth recruitment and retention in agriculture and food systems’ related activities? What nodes and activities in supply chains have the highest potential for generating decent jobs for youth? What new types of training are needed foster more agroecological approaches to farming?
- What is the extent of wage discrepancies against youth and women in agriculture and food systems, and what are some successful experiences in removing such wage differentials?
- What data is necessary to support policy development to enhance youth engagement and employment, and to create awareness of the specific needs, vulnerabilities and opportunities of disadvantaged youth?
[1] The request for HLPE Report # 16 is extracted from the CFS 46 document “CFS Multi-year programme of work 2020-2023” (Ref: CFS 2019/46/7), available at http://www.fao.org/3/na703en/na703en.pdf
- Read 57 contributions
Thank you for the opportunity to comment on this significant issue. I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Environmenal Management at Lincoln University (New Zealand) which is one of the oldest agriculture tertiary institutions in the British commonwealth. We pride ourselves on producing young farmers and associated land based industries (including planning landscape architecture and tourism)
While the approach to your report is generally sound and approipriately emphasises developing country rurality and farming, I consider that there are three matters that need to be brought into the framework of the discussion that are currently missing entirely or are very lightly touched on: the biophysical environment and related perceptions of the food production systems; issues facing developed country food production systems; and the labour linkages between developing and developed country food production systems. I also wish to share a couple of attempts being made in New Zealand to address these issues, I suspect they are not unique.
1. Environmental issues: In New Zealand the adverse effects ot our water quality and quantity caused by farm production systems has become a major political issue that no party can ignore. As significantly, the campaigns (such as the dirty dairying campaign ) to raise the nation's awareness of the damage being done by rapid expansion of dairying and irrigation to our rivers and freshwater aquifers has created a stigma around dairy farming (our major export earner) (Holland 2014) that has reached the point where some of our highly successful dairy farmers are embarrassed to say what they do for a living when at socila events. The negative image of farming appears to be a factor in youth not wishing to venture into this area. This is now receiving added impetus by the accepted threat of climate change and the contirbution our agriculture industry (through methane producing animas) is having on climate. Added to this is the increasing level of stress and the associated high suicide rate of farmers (Holland 2013). Additional stress is beign created by environmental constraints to farming in an attempt to save and restore the freshwater resources . All in all farming does not have an attractive image for youth.
Response: In attempts to redress this image the Dairy industry has made a number of environmentally positive TV advertisements of environmentally friendly farming usually featuring younger farmers and farming familiies, and holds nationally advertised open days when people can come and visit (carefully selected) farms. It and the farming sector generally has emphasised the need for environmental management of farm land as part of being a 'good farmer' and consider peer pressure has moved from being about being the 'highest producer' to being the 'best land/water/biodiveristy manager' while still being profitable. National industry awards for most environmentally friendly farmer of the year receive wide publicity and advertorial boosting. Environmentally friendly ceriuficaiton schemes like the one run by Waitrose are promoted and in one region the local authority charged with environmental managment (Waikato regional council) operates a 'green tick' certification that was developed in concert with farmers. The farming industry has joined with local government on collaboratively developing environmental planning rules and software (eg Overseer) to help calculate the acceptable loss of nutrients to groundwater and rivers. The fencing off of rivers and associated replanting with indigneous biodiversity for habitat restoration and protection of water from overland runoff of nutrients and sediment are now commonly required and research has shown these are having an effect on water quality (see for instance Collins et al 2013). Biodiversity management plans and Green house gas modelling at the individual farm scale are in the pipeline (these are for farms of 20ha or more usually, but also as small as 10ha in some places, including my own smallholding sheep and crop farm). A problem with these environmental requirements, as noted above, is the financial and time pressure they place on farmers and the associated stress. While large corporate farms can cope and thrive, the smaller scale farmers are struggling and this appears to be adverselky affecting the interest of their children in farming - better incomes in less stressful urban jobs (where the adverse environmental effects are played down) beckon. This environmental image isue is a major problem for attracting youth ot farming.
2) Developed country issue: The increased mechanisation and high technological nature of farming and its efect on job creation in developed countries was identified two decades ago by our then Prime Minister Helen Clark in a speech on future employment where she labelled Farming as a 'Sunset industry' - this caused huge furore and anger largely because the context in which she was speaking (the future for growth in employment) was overlooked. However, the issue holds true that high mechanisation and high tech have changed the nature of work and reduced the need for labour. While on the one hand this is positive, on the other it means that there are not the same openings for people to enter the industry, without a good education and technical skills. Consequently we have seen a big increase in courses devoted to food science - testing the quality and safety of food and ways to innovatively use or develop new food products and meet or create new market demand. This is shifting the area for talented youth away from the field and into the laboratory - our Masters in Food science and Innovation have rapidly grown with large numbers of students from developing countries. This points also to the higher demands from developed country consumers for high quality environmentally friendly food - this is something I believe developing countries need to recognise and plan for - their growing middle classes will demand quality also and so in encouraging youth into agriculture or finding employment for youth in food production this is an area that will grow, but possibly at the expense of having jobs for the poorly educated.
Response: As noted, Lincoln University has developed new Masters degrees and programmes, but we are also actively involved in partnering with Universities in other countries to build their in country expertise. Locally, Lincoln University has established partnerships with a number of high schools and some primary schools to support agricultural programmes and school farms with advice and educational support. Although I have seen no analyses i feel that this approach is helping make farming seem more attractive to youth. We have also established a Childrens university to draw in young primary school childrent to the university and aid them in understanding scentific approaches to manaigng land and the environment. This is in its early stages and we have yet to see the outcomes. We have also established an interdisciplinary first year course LINC 101 that is designed to introduce all our students to the integrated systems approach to food production, environmental management and the lifestyles we wish to lead (eg recreation and tourism). Farms are also diversifying their incme sources to incldue tourism activities which offer a different and more socially accpetable future for farming operations that we expect may help retain youth on farms and make farming more understood by non-farmers (again no analyses to support my feelings for how this is working).
3) Labour linkages: This is moving somewhat outside my area of expertise, but simply noting that the role of using migrant farm worker labour with developing country people working seasonally on developed country farms, orchards etc is significant in the South East Pacific region. Domestic labour is insufficient to harvest orchard and horticultural crops in New Zealand and this shortfall is being met by temporary migrant labour from the Pacific Islands. I think the implications of this are quite variable and worthy of further investigation - does it lead to a transfer of farm knowledge appropriate to home country settings? Does it lead to farming being a more attractive industry if you know you can spend part of your time in a devleoped country earning more money to support your home farming family and rural community? or is it leading to false expectations, labour exploitation, lower labour wages (in the developed country due to the ability to use migants to avoid paying wages at a level that would attract the local youth back)? Someone may have investigated this already, but I think it warrants inclusion in your considerations.
Wishing you the best
Hamish Rennie
References:
Collins, K.E.; Doscher C.; Rennie, H.G.; and J.G. Ross 2013 “The effectiveness of riparian ‘restoration’ on water quality – a case study of lowland streams in Canterbury, New Zealand” Restoration Ecology 21(1):40-48
Holland, P. (2013) Why New Zealand dairy farms are not socially sustainable Lincoln Planning Review 5(1-2): 43-47
Holland, P. (2014) The Dirty Dairying Campaign and the Clean Streams Accord Lincoln Planning Review 6(1-2): 63-69.
Hello Friends,
My name is Rosemary Olive Mbone Enie. I am a Geologist, Environmentalist, Eco-community Builder, Gender and Childhood Ambassador. I serve as the International Coordinator for Sustainable Village Resources (SVR) Kenya since July 2019. We are promoting Food Self-sufficiency, Nutrition Security and Sustainable Agriculture in East African Schools and Communities. One of our Flagship project is 'Connecting East African Classrooms through Permaculture'. We want to pass the skills through Secondary and High School Students who would take to their homes and communities. One of our model schools is the Misemwa Secondary School at Bikeke Village, Kitale, Trans Nzoia County Kenya East Africa. We shall have been happy to network and collaborate with other participants.
For the case of Mozambique with around 28 million inhabitants, in which around 80% have agriculture as their source of income and subsistence. On the other hand, Mozambique has a young population, approximately 60%.
The state must maintain the role of deferring development policies, regulating and supervising economic activity.
For a better engagement of empowerment of young people and women in agricultural activity, it is necessary to create active policies and instruments that entice the younger layers to look at agriculture as a source of employment, income and wealth generation, with a strong investment in development through incentives and stimuli.
The agricultural value chain has several employability opportunities for young people, sharing information and opportunities is enough.
Feedback provided on behalf of the WFP Youth Network
At WFP, we believe that the proposed outline of the report on ‘Promoting youth engagement and employment in agriculture and food systems’ is a great attempt to address one of the most overlooked areas in the food security and nutrition discussion: the impact of broken food systems and agriculture on youth.
However, when discussing agriculture and food systems, we also believe that it is imperative to move away from a purely economic cost-benefit analysis and start considering many other important variables to the discussion. One of them has to do with the significant effects on the household food security and nutrition status of affected population groups in contexts of conflict or crisis settings and complex emergencies.
It is easy to forget that in this context those most affected include vast numbers of children, widows, women headed households and youth, many of whom have disabilities or were great contributors to their local economies and food systems. It is well known the role played by youth in the strengthening of local capacities to address household food security and nutrition issues and presenting solutions or coping mechanisms to reduce vulnerability and enhance resilience.
In addition, the approach of any food systems analysis should also include the importance of food assistance support programmes such as food stamp offices, schools’ subsidized meal programs, and any other municipal and county level food assistance programs. For many children and youth in crisis-affected contexts, a meal at school or food assistance kit is the only way to survive in a context where local markets or any other food system component does not exist anymore.
Therefore, suggestions are as follows:
- To include a section that explores the linkage between agriculture and food systems in the context of complex emergencies, and the impact of this on young population. This might offer another layer of analysis when the discussion about challenges that youth might face is presented. When taken into account other realities that exist in a more restricted context, such as the one of an emergency, the report can explore solutions about how to better prepare and strengthen food systems in crisis-settings.
- To highlight the importance of the food assistance in complex emergencies, and how organisations whose mandate is to fight against hunger have prepared youth to face such challenges.
- To broaden the discussion about impact on youth, also incorporating a more gender-sensitive approach, taking into account the role of young girls and women in countries affected by conflicts and natural disasters. Also, it should be noted the impact of broken and dysfunctional food systems on smallholders farmers, many of whom are young leaders.
With the recently launched WFP Youth Network, WFP is seeking to enhance this discussion through and within a group of young colleagues that is spread in more than 80 countries, and has helped the organisation to continue its fundamental work of saving lives and changing lives.
Dear Sir,
Please find attached a copy of my paper on youth employability in the fisheries and aquaculture sector.
Amadou
Estimadx,
Presento algunas sugerencias de las publicaciones sobre temas relacionados con los jóvenes y fuentes de información.
También envío extractos de la ley que creó el Estatuto de la Juventud en Brasil que establece derechos y políticas para los jóvenes, y la creación del Sistema Nacional de la Juventud y el Consejo Nacional de la Juventud.
Lamentablemente, Alimentación y Agricultura no es un capítulo específico.
Aun así, seleccioné aspectos del trabajo en el campo y en la ciudad, apoyo para el emprendimiento y el medio ambiente.
Saludos,
André Luzzi
Rooted in sustainability, agroecology can be expressed as the “ecology of the food system” [4]. It has the explicit goal of transforming food systems towards sustainability by supporting a balance between ecological soundness, economic viability and social adherence [2]. Agroecology applies ecological concepts and principles to optimize interactions between plants, animals, humans and the environment while taking into consideration social aspects required for a sustainable and fair food system. It helps to build a greater resilience of ecosystem services and contributes to environmental rehabilitation of land, water systems, increase nutritional diversity, and overall human health. It relies on biodiversity (e.g. nutrient cycling, biotic pollination, natural pest control, locally adapted genetics) rather than external inputs like synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and imported concentrate feed. It is highly knowledge- intensive, builds upon farmers’ collective knowledge and innovations, making it particularly attractive for rural and urban youth. With an emphasis on the importance of social equity such as job creation and gender considerations, agroecology also promotes shorter value chains and encourages direct consumer-producer exchanges. Agroecology is seen as a promising approach for the transformational change to sustainable food and agricultural systems.
with all the best
Emadeldin Mahgoub, Sudan
While supervising Master’s & Doctoral dissertations, viz.1. Determinants of rural youth participation in farming (2014), 2. Participation of young women in agriculture: an analytical study of their involvement, attitude and aspirations (2018), 3.Gender based differential access to information among livestock owners and its impact on household milk production in Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh (2006), 4. Gender perspectives in dairy production system of Rajasthan (2014), I observed:
i. Agriculture is the least preferred career option among young, particularly women in India, ii. The extension services need to be oriented to make them more responsive to younger generations of farmers especially farm women which are currently paid least attention amongst all, iii. women’s formal participation is very limited, often due to inherent gender bias coupled with lack of skills for skilled jobs, iv. Women are poorly represented in skill trainings, meetings and events meant for capacity building programmes undertaken by Research, Development & extension organizations, v. The long standing gender inequality in matters of agricultural & rural transformation can be overcome through relevant research by generating evidences towards developing right policies and programmes including extension services, vi. Skilling rural women may improve their work profile leading to their visibility and productivity in Indian agriculture, vii. Adult men often hold the title on land making them eligible for collateral/credit from the financial institutions to take up commercial activities in rural areas, viii. Women are often ignored by the financial institutions for the want of collaterals, ix. Limited association of farm women with formal institutions further limit their access to information and knowledge needed to upgrade their status and self-esteem, x. The All Women Dairy Cooperatives in India could improve their level of skills and social prestige with economic empowerment, xi. Skilled women can contribute more meaningfully in agricultural sector to bring about much needed rural transformation in India, xi. The extension services to be relevant & sustainable have to consider the aspirations and needs of younger generation of farmers especially young rural women.
We interviewed two hundred youth respondents from farming families of Kerala and Rajasthan in India, to analyze their educational and occupational aspirations and the effect of socio-cultural and economic factors on aspirations. The results revealed that only a small fraction of youth were interested in agriculture and allied industries in both of these states.
Also, I published a blog," Women, livestock and fodder trees in Central Himalayas", which a kind of my personal narration of women at my home, who face hardships in rearing animals.
Considering the importance of gender equality in matters of access to resources including farm trainings, I wrote for GFAR, Gender Inclusive Capacity Building Programmes: We Know Gender Equality Matters.
I believe, this report should address issue of the safe Spaces for youth as well…
On 12th August, 2018, we celebrated International Day of Youth and I wrote about the event that took place at my institute. The theme for International Youth Day 2018 was Safe Spaces for Youth. Youth need safe spaces where they can come together, engage in activities related to their diverse needs and interests, participate in decision making processes and freely express themselves.
Just one little effort from our part to be part of the effort to raise awareness on challenges and problems facing the world’s youth, with energetic participation of about 85 boys and girls. Many of them had complaints against their parents, teachers and friends for poor parenting, poor teaching and not being helpful at the time of need. A few told they can do a lot better; they need just good support from their families, teachers, friends and society at large. Some were apprehensive about their future just because there were not enough government jobs to look towards. A few wanted early marriage but they can’t, just because they don’t have a government job. We were surprised to know that many girls wanted to join police force- to teach lessons to eve teasers. Their stories were reflective that eve-teasing remains one big problem in this part of the world.
They loved to express themselves because they were offered a platform to do so. Often they lack opportunities to share their free thoughts, ideas and creativity, they told. They loved it much that they got the opportunity to celebrate a day meant for them and about them. Usually no one cares for their needs & wants, only scolding’s of parents and teachers often they get, they are hardly heard by anybody, some echoed. For many, it was their first opportunity to speak up what they think. It was really a very gratifying for us that rural boys & girls could speak before an audience- the very first step to build up their confidence and raise morale.
Can we provide such opportunities? We need more youth clubs, wherein, youth can unleash their creativity and share their ideas. This report should address how best this can be done, & how fast?
Thank you very much for incorporate this relevant issue to the food system discussion. Youth people need to be supported and find new ways to be establish in the field and the food system as a whole.
I believe, by the way, that the role of new technologies and the relationship with new youth jobs in agricultural sector and food systems is relevant. The role of rural education and its relationship with innovation and promotion activities involved with agroecological approach and new technical support is relevant.
Other issue is related with PERIURBAN AREAS, where poor people and youth people live. There, there is a lot to study, understand and support.
The relationship of agroecology, health food system and new roles for food promotion and consume must to be study.
The relation ship of agroecology, youth people and social and solidarity economy could offer a road to reach to the SDGs in terms of erradicate poverty, food unsecurity, rural education, etc.
Best
Dr. Ing. Agr. Walter A. Pengue
GEPAMA, Argentina
PD: Attach, you will find a free book on AGROECOLOGY, ENVIRONMENT AND HEALTH, that could be usefull with some tips for the discussion for periurban areas of cities and towns.
Ms. Teresa Maisano
Please direct your attentioon tpo following next to complete program to return youth to agriculture : Nutritional Diversity Revision III, 2020
To: FAO
From: Nutritional Diversity, Biodiverse Food Study, Panama
Our group has been long time contributors to the hope and push for a saving of the ecology, and alternative agriculture, better health through diverse organic systems.
Our groups passion is helping return young people to agriculture, and we are doing a great jonb, please come see it, and maybe you can help us grow it.
That's what this all about right!
Thank you
Kim Conely
Intern @ Nutritional Diversity S,A,
Republic of Panama
This activity is now closed. Please contact [email protected] for any further information.