Proceedings discussion No

Patricia Chitanda, Small and Medium Enterprise Development Instute (Smedi), Malawi

MY EXPERIENCE IN AGRICULTURE AND ACHIEVEMENTS

My name is Patricia Chitanda from Malawi its a good experience am having in Agriculture now looking way back at school I did not like the subject of Agriculture but now have realized that money is inside Agriculture and its time to dig out the money, that's when I had the opportunity to apply for entrepreneurship in Agribusiness where I chose to venture into animal production Piggery to be specific. I take this as an achievement because Av just started with one (1) pig which I know in no time I will have so much in stock because they litter more at once if u care very well. In Malawi our economy relies on Agriculture so I will contribute to the growth of economy.

Mathieu Dohounheho, Ong Jevev, Benin

Original comment in French

Mathieu Dohounheho, étudiant béninois vivant au Brésil. Je suis titulaire d'un diplôme professionnel en gestion et production de plantes et de semences de l'Université nationale d'agriculture du Bénin et membre du MGCY des Nations Unies. Aujourd'hui, je me concentre davantage sur l'eau et l'environnement. Pour moi, l'agriculture a toujours été une passion dès le plus jeune âge. Je suis née et j'ai grandi dans les zones rurales. Au cours des quatre dernières années, j'ai dû beaucoup travailler avec des producteurs de plusieurs localités au Bénin. Pendant ce temps, nous avons expérimenté plusieurs fois avec différents systèmes de culture dans différents domaines et l'un des systèmes (MAÏS-MUCCUNA) était plus adapté aux terres pauvres du Bénin. Nous avons utilisé ce dernier système pour notre thèse finale. Le document est là mais personne ne pense plus le vulgariser. Cela signifie qu'il y a mille et un jeunes Africains qui ont des innovations mais ne peuvent pas les réaliser. Nous avons une multitude d’universités et de structures agricoles en Afrique qui forment beaucoup de jeunes, notamment au Bénin comme UNA (Université Nationale d’Agriculture du Bénin), SONGHAÏ Project mais n’ont pas de bonne politique d’orientation des jeunes titulaires de la licence. Nous tous (les jeunes dans l'agriculture) voulons que les conditions de vie de notre population bien-aimée s'améliorent et que notre monde devienne un nouveau monde sans faim et pauvreté (ONU ODD 1) et c'est pourquoi nous avons choisi l'agriculture notre carrière Nous voulons que chaque individu ait suffisamment à manger et, surtout, des aliments de qualité. Donc, ma question peut être résumée comme suit: 

- Quelles sont les stratégies que la FAO et d'autres parties prenantes ont l'intention de mettre en place pour accompagner certains gouvernements afin qu'à chaque fois que ces jeunes universitaires quittent le système, ils soient directement introduits, en particulier les meilleurs?

- N'est-il pas bon que la FAO créée un répertoire ou un blog qui permettra aux structures de supervision agricole d'envoyer les mémoires de ces jeunes universitaires (étudiants et maîtres) chaque année et que vous prendrez les meilleures idées?

English translation

Mathieu Dohounheho, I am a Beninese student living in Brazil. I have a professional degree in plant and seed management and production from the National University of Agriculture of Benin and I am a member of MGCY of the United Nations. I now focus more on water and the environment. I have always been passionate about farming from a very young age. I was born and raised in rural areas. Over the last four years, I have been working with producers in several localities in Benin. During this period, we experimented several times with different cropping systems in different fields and one of the systems (MAÏS-MUCCUNA) was more suitable for the poor lands of Benin. We used this last system for our final thesis. The document exists but nobody thinks to vulgarize it any more. This means that a thousand and one young Africans do have innovations but cannot make them happen. In Africa many universities and agricultural structures train many young people, especially in Benin such as UNA (National University of Agriculture of Benin), SONGHAÏ Project, but do not have a good orientation policy for young graduates. All of us (young people in agriculture) want to improve the living conditions of our beloved people and make our world a new world without hunger and poverty (UN SDG 1) and that is why we have chosen agriculture as our career. We want every individual to have enough to eat and, above all, quality food. So my question can be summarized as follows:

- What strategies do FAO and other stakeholders intend to put in place to support some governments so that each time these young academics leave the system, they are directly brought in, especially the best one?

- Wouldn't it be useful for FAO to create a directory or blog that would allow agricultural supervisory structures to send the memoirs of these young academics (students and teachers) each year so as to gather the best ideas?

DOHOUNHEHO Mathieu

Étudiant en sciences de l'environnement

São Paulo, Brésil

Prosper Ruterana, Macadamia – Growers, Rwanda

A University graduate, It was understandable in our culture and though to see him in Agriculture primary production. But I started my agriculture career from second year of secondary school; here we did it as hobby (production of potatoes, small quantity of beans), we didn't have an ambition of producing profitably.

When I was 17, my father proposed me to start to crop Macadamia and learnt about them. It was discouraged to plant a crop of between 4-5 year for first production and he motivated me that It's for future cash in as well as feeding the future people as we increase and the land stay.

As an African youth engaged in Agriculture, I see that agriculture in Rwanda is a potential sector for forging money, but we hindered by limited cropping land, selected semens, conservation of naturally resource, dense population, financial resources (Investment),. We have a big market of agriculture produces but we don't have a good strategies of reaching. Another challenge we face is that market prices is not fixed. It fluctuates every season.

What motivate me to engage in agriculture is to feed my people. If there is no food even the life stop. The primary fuel for human life is food. The second is that as people increase, the food consumption also increase. Today, in Africa most young people look for smart (office) jobs. Agriculture is done by olden, they need someone who will get the heritage of producing for human consumption. Agriculture is my hobby. I will die by doing it.

Today, I have a farm of 97 macadamia trees. I had it before since 2004. I produced little amount of macadamia nuts in 2015. I flied to Israel for agriculture training and I appraised more skills related to archard production and I transferred into my plantation. Fortunately I shifted from 78 Kgs to 400 Kgs within two years, by next year 2019 I believe to harvest 2T. As experience, don't need to achieve more within short time. Enjoy the journey and gain more after. Work hard like slavery and life like King.

a). Youth Employment and Entrepreneurship:

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  what do they expect to do to motivate young graduates to engage in agriculture sector?
  

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  How do they assimilate the problem of youth unemployment situation and how they will contribute to alleviate it?
  
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  What can we do to upgrade the agriculture wages?
  

b) Digital Innovation to Overcome Agriculture Value-Chain Constraints

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  I will ask them if they are ready to produce a well and easy manipulated software for value chain that should help farmers to access all necessary information related to their daily activities.
  

c). Future of Work in Rural Economy - of the conference?

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  The contribution of experts to shed down all necessary framework of developing rural areas economically through the agriculture.
  
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  Their contribution to the development of the agriculture of small scale farmers.
  

Thanks