Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition (FSN Forum)

Many of the Youth trained have grasped the vital importance of super-imposing Business Skills on Production Skills in order to make a Success of Agriculture as a Business.

They can now Study their Business Environments, Identify their Strategic Business Priorities and use these to develop their own Peculiar Business Plans that would guide future Deployment of Financial, Material and Human Resources.

However, many of them are constrained by Finances as they are yet to acquire Loans or Grants to actualize their Dreams and Plans.

But those who have been fortunate to raise Funds are Managing their Businesses more Prudently and Efficiently - Identifying (and Negotiating) with Markets even BEFORE Production, Maintaing Industrial Harmony by Managing Human Hesources fairly to both Employer and Employee, Proactively Identifying Potential Risks (not just Production Risks but Enterprise Wide Risks Assessment) to Business Success and Mitigating those Risks BEFORE they materialize etc.

In addition, the Business Management Training has given them Boldness, which is not evident in Agripreneurs without this type of Training.

It is still early days, so it is premature to fully report Successes, but the Prognisis is certainly Reassuring.

One of the biggest challenge youth face after going through specific CD initiative is lack of support, it could be moral, equipment and / or financial. In Cameroon, there is a project call "Programme de Promotion de l'Entrepreneuriat Agropastoral des Jeunes ", this program empowers youth for three months and at the end of their capacity development on good agricultural practices, management and how to write a project, they will present a project that is going to be financed as follows: government supports 50% of the total capital, the youth brings 10% of the total capital and there a loan of 40% by a microfinance Institute.

Often after the training some youth are not able to mobilise their 10%, some doesn't have guaranty for the loan. But those who are able to benefit from this opportunity, create job for their self and for other youth in their community. They are able to transfer what they acquire to other youth and serve as examples and model for the future beneficiaries of the program.

In response to your question based on my previous post; what are they lessons, if any that have you learned from your post-capacity development initiatives that you could further share on this Forum?

There are numerous lessons learned from our post-capacity development initiatives, below are some of them:

(1) The majority of farmers (youth) are willing to engage in agribusiness, but they don't have the capital strength to start up.

(2) Most of our youths have the agribusiness skills.

(3) Youth are always ready to participate in an activities that can improve their livelihood.

(4) Lack of continuity retards progress

(5) You can be rich when you engage in farming

(6) Top-down approach should be avoided, while bottom up should be encouraged.

(7) Agribusiness is the appropriate channel to alleviate poverty

Africa is a youthful continent is as authentic as the holy books and the only way to ensure that Africa is self-sufficient in Food is by empowering our youthful population. Here in the Gambia the Government is doing all that is possible to ensure that the youths are empowered through agriculture. One of the Major activities embarked upon in my Agency right now is the training of youths on Good Agricultural Practices through Food Value Chain. Choosing casava as a main crop that every Gambian can cultivate is a positive way of helping youths to grow cassava in abundance so as to meet both local and international demand. We are anticipating that in the near future the Gambia will grow cassava in abundance using Good Agricultural Practices in order to be able to export cassava and cassava products to the most stringhten countries, such as the EU, which have very strict hygiene and safety procedures.

Negative Influence from environment

Just like a drop of blood dirties a whole drum of clean water so does the negative energy and Negative perception on agricultural activities kills the morale of youth who undergoes capacity development. A strategy paper drawn by the Ministry of Agriculture (Kenya Youth Agribusinsess Strategy 2017-2021) launched in July identifies Youth Negative Perception towards agriculture as the biggest impediment to implementation agribusiness in Kenya.

According to the strategy paper, we must overcome this challenge if we are to succeed in attracting youth into agribusiness.

The solution then would be even as organization develop and design curriculum, attention should be paid to the need of pilot projects that would be used as case studies to share as success stories. It is through story telling that we can win the fight against negative perception. Platforms like peer learning forums would make perfect places where this stories would be shared.

So capacity development programs should be modelled in form of this forum to facilitate easy learning and adaptation.

Feedback by the facilitator in English and French (below) 

Dear All,

A few more challenges youth in agriculture face after participating in CD initiatives have been added to the list since my last post. These are lack of follow-up and continuity by organizations on their CD initiatives/projects, inability to implement recommendations made during CD initiatives/projects, and lack of “decent jobs” in agriculture. The lack of “decent jobs” forces the youth graduating in agriculture to look for jobs in other sectors.

Regarding question 2, from the contributions made to date, I have identified six contributions (with some good details) highlighting examples of initiatives or projects that are working or worked on addressing sustainability issues of capacity development targeting youth in agriculture. These are:

Togo: an NGO - Entreprises Territoires et Développement (ETD) has setup a fund - CIDEA (Capital Investissement pour le Développement d’Entreprises dans le secteur Agricole) - to finance agro-food enterprises and a business incubation and promotion centre to support young people in the agro-food sector (and later in other sectors).

Nigeria: the IITA Youth Agripreneurs initiative equips young agripreneurs with skills in production processes and business management to help them to become both agriculturists and people who understand how the business world operates.

Nigeria: the National Institute for Freshwater Fisheries Research runs an undergraduate programme called Students Industrial Work Experience Scheme which provides work experience to students trained in aquaculture and fishery.

Nigeria: a project by the Kano State Agricultural and Rural Development Authority (KNARDA) (during the period 2003-2011) worked with farmer groups (in which 70% of the members were youth). The project trained farmers in good agricultural practices and marketing strategies in maize production and provided agricultural inputs at subsidized rate.

Kenya: Greenfarm International is helping young farmers to develop contract farming to collect the fodder and sell it to the organization. Greenfarm International finances all purchases, transport and storage.

Kenya: Agriterra is building capacities of youth to enable them to be part of agricultural cooperatives by helping them to get organised into Youth Councils. The supply their produces to the cooperatives and other interested in agriculture. This arrangement makes it possible for the youth to access finance (loans), based on the produce or savings, from the cooperatives. Peer to peer exchange among young farmers is also promoted.

I have the following questions to the contributors of the initiatives:

• To: Atsu Sename (TOGO); Ololade Adesola, Musa Usman Musa and Philip Ifejika (NIGERIA); James Aucha and Hillary Maket (KENYA) – what are they lessons, if any, that have you learned from your post-capacity development initiatives that you could further share on this Forum?
• To: Atsu Sename (TOGO),  Ololade Adesola and Philip Ifejika (NIGERIA) - what specific support is provided to the youth after they have gone through the CD initiatives that you have highlighted?

I am sure there are more examples of initiatives addressing of post-capacity development sustainability. I and my colleagues will be happy to hear about them.

Regards,

Justin

***

Chers/Chères Amis/es,

D’autres défis auxquels sont confrontés les jeunes après avoir participé aux activités de renforcement des capacités ont été rajoutés à la liste depuis mon dernier article. Il existe en effet un manque de suivi et de continuité de la part des organisations dans la réalisation des initiatives/projets de renforcement des capacités, une incapacité à mettre en œuvre les recommandations formulées au cours de ces initiatives/projets de renforcement des capacités, ainsi qu’un manque « d’emplois décents » dans le secteur agricole. Ce manque « d’emplois décents » oblige les jeunes diplômés en agriculture à chercher du travail dans d’autres secteurs.

En ce qui concerne la question numéro 2, j’ai pu, sur la base des contributions faites jusqu’à présent, recenser six exemples (relativement bien détaillés) qui mettent en évidence des initiatives ou des projets qui travaillent ou qui ont travaillé sur la question de la durabilité du renforcement des capacités ciblé sur les jeunes en agriculture, notamment :

Togo : une ONG - Entreprises Territoires et Développement (ETD) a mis en place un fonds - CIDEA (Capital Investissement pour le Développement d'Entreprises dans le secteur agricole) -qui a pour but de financer les entreprises agroalimentaires ainsi qu’un centre d’incubation et de promotion des entreprises pour soutenir les jeunes qui travaillent dans le secteur agroalimentaire (et postérieurement dans d’autres secteurs).

Nigéria : l'initiative Jeunes Agripreneurs de l'IITA met à la disposition des jeunes entrepreneurs agricoles des compétences liées au processus de production et à la gestion de l’entreprise afin de les aider à devenir à la fois des agriculteurs et aussi des personnes qui comprennent comment fonctionne le monde des affaires.

Nigéria : l’institut national pour la recherche sur les pêches en eau douce (National Institute for Freshwater Fisheries Research) organise un programme de premier cycle intitulé Mécanisme d’expérience en travail industriel pour étudiants (Students Industrial Work Experience Scheme) qui offre une expérience professionnelle aux étudiants formés en aquaculture et en pêche.

Kenya : un projet de la Kano State Agricultural and Rural Development Authority (KNARDA) a travaillé avec des groupes d'agriculteurs (dont 70% des membres étaient des jeunes) pendant la période 2003-2011. Le projet visait à former les agriculteurs aux bonnes pratiques agricoles, ainsi qu’aux stratégies de commercialisation de la production de maïs, et leur fournissait des intrants agricoles à un taux subventionné.

Kenya : : Greenfarm International aide les jeunes agriculteurs à développer l'agriculture contractuelle pour collecter le fourrage et le vendre à l'organisation. Greenfarm International finance tous les achats, le transport et le stockage.

Kenya : Agriterra s’occupe du renforcement des capacités des jeunes afin de leur permettre de participer à des coopératives agricoles en les aidant à s’organiser en conseils de jeunesse. Ils livrent leurs productions aux coopératives et à d’autres intéressés par l’agriculture. Cet arrangement permet aux jeunes d’accéder à un financement garanti par leurs produits ou par l’épargne, moyennant des prêts accordés par les coopératives. L’échange entre pairs parmi les jeunes agriculteurs est également encouragé.

J'ai les questions suivantes à poser aux personnes qui ont contribué à ces initiatives:

À : Atsu Sename (TOGO), Ololade Adesola et Philip Ifejika (NIGERIA), Atsu Sename (TOGO), Ololade Adesola et Philip Ifejika (NIGERIA) : Avez-vous tiré des leçons des initiatives menées après le renforcement des capacités dont vous pourriez nous parler sur ce Forum ?

Quel soutien spécifique a été fourni aux jeunes à l’issue des initiatives de renforcement des capacités que vous avez soulignées?

Je suis persuadé qu'il existe d'autres exemples d'initiatives qui traitent de la durabilité des mesures à prendre dans la foulée des initiatives de renforcement des capacités. Mes collègues et moi-même serions heureux de les connaître.

Cordialement

Sustaining African Youth in Agriculture

Congratulations to all the young people practising agriculture and related enterprises. It is a great achievement from the perspective of one who was a youth when the common narrative was that agriculture, especially small scale agriculture was for those who failed to qualify for “office” jobs – or was it a trick used by our parents to keep us in school?

We now know it differently. Whatever career choice one makes, agriculture remains a noble profession. No human being; billionaires, world leaders, the monetary poor, or the young, can survive without food and other agricultural products. Does that sound like one can never go wrong with agriculture as a career choice?

Yes, with a lot of encouragement and support

1. The need for society to start accepting agriculture as a career choice and a sustainable way of providing a livelihood. Parents and teachers to reserve their comments whenever children talk of farming as one of their dreams. Schools to divert from using farm activities as punishment to students.
2. Learning and training institutions to develop curricular that embraces both family farming and commercial agricultural production as potential activities on land. The result will be that youth who lack access to large parcels of land will be willing to start from family land. Kitchen gardens have proven a success in the achievement of food and nutritional security at the household level.
3. Capacity development to focus on agriculture as a system comprised of activities from land/livestock, harvesting and storage, value adding, marketing and consumption. The view of agriculture as a system provides alternatives for the youth to choose from. Those still not ready to touch soil after acquiring a university degree can choose to engage from value addition and marketing stages of the chain.
4. The formation and strengthening of youth groups as one way to overcome financial challenges. It is always easier for recognizable groups to access resources from financial institutions or available grants – compared to individual applications. Groups are a source of strength and encouragement in markets and marketing, especially in current times where middlemen have strengthened their hold on transport and marketing. Easier for youth to form groups when one views middlemen as any cohesive group with a common goal.
5. For now, not everyone has access to land for agriculture. Youth can initiate public discussions where they ask those with extra land for lease. Youth to lobby policy makers for formulation of policies in support of use of vacant land without harassment from the land owners.
6. Develop strategies to share successful case studies – nothing works like field visits to agricultural activities managed by fellow youth. The youth will have a chance to learn from other youth, that farming requires patience and lots of labour, knowledge and skills – not a one year activity for one to reap benefits.
7. The need for analysis of available agricultural related policies at the international, national and local levels. The outcome will be a document for youth to refer to whenever in doubt. This will save time and create awareness on available policies for youth to take advantage of, or areas of lacking for them to lobby for formulation of supportive policies.
8. Youth to take advantage of their superior access and knowledge on technology. Having acquired an education, youth can access available educational materials in agriculture and life in general. Reading widely means that one will be well-equipped to separate “shining passing objects” from well-tested techniques and inputs that will work. The current world is one of information overload, calling for critical thinking when making decisions and choices in relation to access, affordability, practicality and many other abilities that are area and individual specific.
9. The youth already in practice to step forward as living examples. Visit schools and other learning institutions and share your experience as a youth farmer who is ready to continue practicing agriculture. I am still waiting to watch one of our youth at a TedTalk – local or international.

Many of our youth are already on the right pathway. Keep it up, use your unmatched access to social media to ask questions, share challenges and successes stories.

Always remember that there are thousands or millions of us out here ready to share our experience and skills with the younger generation – I want to be assured that when I retire from farming on my 80X40 parcel of land, there will be enough “good” food for me to access. There will always be a ready market for agricultural produce, aka, food.

FSN Network Debate

Sustaining the Impact of Capacity Development Initiatives for African Youth in Agriculture

Contribution: Planning for the big picture

Hello everyone,

Here’s my take on some of the macro-issues that lie behind the five questions raised. You’ll see that I’m generally sceptical about what young people in Africa can do for themselves either individually or collectively given the limited resources and opportunities that face the majority. This, however, should not detract from what some are already doing successfully and from the the investment required of those currently in charge – of countries, regional/national institutions, banks, investment funds, companies and similar. And too, the contribution of those on the outside looking into the continent not all of whom will be pro-Africa, pro-youth or neutral in approach.

Introduction – difficult choices for distant planners

If ‘youth’ and ‘agriculture’ appears in the title you must take note - the compatibility and the incompatibility of the two sectors in Africa (and many other places). Many contributors have already made that obvious link between young people and the future – the young you see around today are the leaders of tomorrow – it follows logically. The challenge is equally obvious – capturing these young people to the social and industrial sectors that are essential to the development of the national economy; and this becomes fundamental when you realize that these are the same people who may have been trained and educated by the state.

It’s equally obvious that the loss of these potentially productive young people is a wasted resource if they are not captured, encouraged and incorporated into the national workforce; lose them and you lose both your current investment and your future.

Sounds great, notwithstanding the reality of what you read as described by many of your 35 correspondents thus far – unemployment, few opportunities, inadequate resources (access to land, finance, technologies, etc.), poverty of national planning, no/limited markets, etc. You name it – it’s listed somewhere in this FSN debate; and if not this one, then one of the others*. We are, as an interested and technically-competent community (meaning us - the FSN community) clever with words, but perhaps less capable when it comes to shifting ideas into practice.

Lost resources – people who emigrate/drift

And, this thing then about reality – take an example – what about the young Nigerian men working the supermarket car parks in Italy. You name a town – you will find them there; hassling the shoppers for their return trollies because – you guessed it – there’s a euro return fee in the chain-locking system, and this is how people on the fringe of a society can make a marginal living. And it’s not just the Nigerians, but also those from many other African countries doing much the same.

Talk to them – they are always either English or French speaking – and you’ll find many are graduates who have left their countries for the unknowns of Western Europe. And, in addition to the supermarket men they’re also casual petrol pump attendants, seasonal agricultural workers by the tens of thousands, and hawkers of all kinds of cheap merchandise at traffic lights and around the bars in Italy. What a way to make a living.

Equally – take a second example - you meet educated young Egyptians driving taxis in Cairo – graduates from the universities representing all manner of technical/literary sectors – who are unable to find suitable work; and this, in one of the most dynamic of the North African countries. Imagine a country that lives on <10% of the land area and has difficulty in attracting young people to the land – typically distant lands - and then keeping them there. How do you provide living space and feed 100M people? The challenges are obvious.

Africa feeding the world

And here’s the contradiction of agricultural production industries as a recipient of young people; individually they may have neither the capabilities nor the resources to make it given the need to modernise national (and regional) agricultural industries across the continent. With 20% of the world’s land area, Africa is well-placed to literally ‘feed-the-world’ when (I hesitate to say ‘if’) sufficient inter-regional/trans-national African institutions, companies, investors, regional/national governments, etc. can be mobilized and provided with the vision required; and then mobilize the resources and make a difference.

Vision followed by action

Sure, much of this comes within a ‘macro-planning/longer-term’ target, but time is not the best of allies here. You only have to explore the agro-industrialization offered by large-scale irrigation that has been introduced in recent times into Northern Sudan – the transport infrastructure that links into national networks in Egypt and will eventually link Nairobi to Addis Ababa to Khartoum to Cairo on all-weather highways; and the investment in agro-production and agro-industrial processing that will follow/is already underway. And, if not by those with Africa-first priorities, but those that see the continent as ready for modern food production.

Everyone knows the basic food security numbers; >1B people food insecure today; 10B people to feed by 2050 (of which >2.5B will call Africa ‘home’), and changing dietary requirements that include more varied and interesting foodstuffs that demand higher investment, more advanced technologies and the capabilities, knowledge and experience of specialized people. Above all, key issue this, you need markets, buoyant commercial sectors – national and regional – and pragmatic public sectors that are able and sufficiently confident to provide the basis for the private sector to grow and succeed.

Ask yourself why all those well-educated young men from Nigeria continue to drift northwards at alarming rates; from a giant of a country with a rich petrochemical economy and a resilient agro-production heritage?

Consider India

And, by way of shifting this contribution from the ‘smoke & mirrors’ of hypothesis, explore the national planning available from India, for example. Larger population than Africa and with few of the natural resources available; but better organized and with considerable potential already recognized on global scale. Download the government’s sales document ‘EY Doing Business in India 2015-16’. It’s available at: http://www.ey.com/Publication/vwLUAssets/EY-doing-business-in-india-2015-16/%24FILE/EY-doing-business-in-india-2015-16.pdf. Explore potential, examine the investment sectors highlighted, see what they say about employment.

Similar problems to Africa too – languages, abject poverty, growing Gini Index, etc. And note India’s competitive position – way down the international scale when it comes to others - in the bottom 25%. The point is to recognise this – and change. India will also have more young people than Africa into the next period, of which females in the workforce post-secondary & higher education are already dramatically under-employed. Key words: ‘Inefficiency & waste’. Read about it at: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/10/india-workforce-skills-training/

Final words

Off track? Sure, could be, but an approach to macro-planning and monitoring/adapting the experience of others when considering the five questions/issues raised for this FSN debate by Mr Chisenga has value. It is expecting too much of the FSN network to do more than provide a debating platform, but it’s a start. Youth to youth opportunities for Capacity Development? Hmmm. Strictly limited/non-existent. Define ‘agriculture’ and link this to ‘national education’. Put into place those short, medium & long-term national plans for agro-production and post-production. Encourage the rise of core and down-stream service and advisory industries, get public sector services into the field. Decide on the priorities that link urban and rural development. Be smart.

Africa needs to nurture its young people; those with experience need to monitor, advise and guide; those with vision need to share their ideas and imagination; watching from the side will be the investors and entrepreneurs who will take risk, exploit and reap the rewards; herein will be need for competent and sympathetic governments that will provide those essential frameworks to encourage the investors, etc. but also to collect the taxes and re-invest them, and share new wealth within local communities. Oh, and don’t forget safety nets for those who cannot easily participate from first base.

Key subject then: ‘Young people and their future’. Enjoy the debate.

Peter Steele

Melbourne

Australia

01 November 2017

*We had a similar topic for the FSN West Africa Network January 2013 – ‘Finding work for young people – agricultural options’ Check it out. My earlier contribution was more ‘hands-on’.

Good People

I promised to offer solutions to challenges that i posted a few days ago. here we go. First a brief about our Company and solutions after the brief.

Our Business food quality and safety services Ltd in Kenya is full time consultancy company based in Kenya and offering solutions to solve challenges in the Agribusiness and Horticultural Industry in Kenya to make it profitable and attractive especially to the young people. Among others, our main roles include

1. Help drive efficiency and make the farms profitable. This involves looking at everything in the value chain from Land preparation; growing aspects, Growing mix, and Pack house Operations and all the way to the market, and putting the necessary mitigation measures in place from capacity building, GAP compliance among others.

2. Connecting local farmers and companies to both local and international to markets. This ensures that they deal directly with the markets as opposed to Middlemen or Brokers, which in turn ensures high income for Farmers.

3. Work with export Companies and Farmers to put in place the most efficient water utilization methods, from water harvesting, irrigation systems and techniques that will ensure water as a scarce resource is used efficiently, and cost effective. Use of best practices in water management , gained from countries like Israel that are water deficient yet are self-sustainable in food production.

4. Help Export companies with Implementation of Quality, Safety and Environmental standards required by European Union e.g. Global Gap, BRC- (British Retail Consortium Certification), as well individual Buyers (supermarket) standards.

5. Apart from Consultancy in the Horticultural Industry I’m also a serious avocado Farmer farming profitably for the last 9 years.

Proposed Solutions

Africa continues to face food shortages and despite good arable land and conducive climate.

It is in public knowledge that Africa has the youngest population worldwide- ages between 15-35 years

Stated problems and Proposed possible solutions.

1. Continuous reliance on rain fed agricultural farming- climate changes and unreliable rains. Due to unreliable rains famers continue to suffer huge losses. This needs to change and water harvesting- even at rural areas can go along away in harvesting water to farm when it is dry. Secondly irrigation - while quite expensive especially if you do drip system it is the ultimate answers since it ensures efficiency use of water and application of some chemicals in some cases. We also have to embrace trees/ fruits trees planting in our farms as part of measures to reduce effects of climate change.

2. Reducing yields per unit/Hectare in the last 20 years or so and growing costs increasing at the same time making farming a loss making venture. This has been as result of various factors namely, planting uncertified seeds, lack of knowledge on nutritional requirements for crops, failure to rotate and poor land prep among others. The solutions here include, planting certified seeds, regular rotation of crops, governments and local authorities working with farmers to train them on good practices and elimination of middlemen who rake big profits at the expense of farmers.

3. Inadequate Government policies to address challenges in Agriculture. Research institutes need to get more actively involved in coming with solutions affecting yields, varieties and good government support in lowering the cost of inputs will address this challenge

4. Rapidly increasing population- leading to more food consumption.- we have no choice but to grow more and do it efficiently due to declining productive land. How will manage this is a an open complex question.

5. Post-harvest losses in some cases up to 40% of the harvested produce. It is painful that after all the hard work is done we end losing so much due to post harvest losses. One approach that would work well is capacity building and training farmers on post-harvest management way before they harvest their crops, and where possible government and Investors invest in storage facilities for various crops in different regions of the country.

6. Inability to practice good agricultural practices eg adding manure or compost to farms, crop rotation. Due to low level of education in rural areas as well government in ability to train farmers on basic good practices concepts

7. Poor linkages between Agricultural research a organizations and their findings with the people involved in agricultural activities. A visit to Kenya Agricultural Research centres reveal massive grounding breaking research on agriculture, but the farmers who need this information most don’t have it- a way of disseminating information to farmers and other interested parties must be found- otherwise all the good research will add zero value

8. Subdivision of arable land as part of cultural practice of land inheritance and property development in arable areas.... This is complex especially in Kenya where children must inherit their parents land and later pass it to their children - further reducing arable land to un economical units. A government policy to contain this problem in Kenya failed - because land in Kenya is quite emotive - but long term solution will lie around convincing all of us that land subdivision is detrimental to food production and agree on minimum acreage that can’t be divided.

Comments are welcome

in response to question3 : What post-capacity development support do the youth need? What can the youth do to support each other in developing their skills and capacities?

In my opinion, the fundamental post-capacity development support our youths require is finance. If our youth could obtained a financial support, am sure the issue of unemployment in Nigeria will become a history. In Kano Kano State for example, majority of our farmers especially youth, can play a role of extension agent in other states due to series of trainings they undergone. They have the skills of agricultural entrepreneurship, but capital is the major impediment. If our youth obtained capital they will establish a business, by doing so, they can support each other by sharing ideas and engaging their friends in one activity or the other, and that can reduce unemployment in the country. And also, when our youth established business, they will serve as subject of emulation in the society.