Proceedings discussion No

Fredrick O Ogutu, Kenya Industrial Research and Development Institute, Kenya

1. Experience as a Youth in the Agriculture Sector

I am involved in agribusiness among youths particularly at incubation of youth and women owned SMEs. We offer training, shared processing facility and incubation to enable them have a soft landing.

2. Major Achievements and Success Stories

We have many successful businesses in peanut, spices, fruits and vegetables etc.

3. What the Rwanda Youth Conference

Should Address Agribusiness marketing, role of governments in agribusiness

Aimé Kazika, YPARD DRC, Democratic Republic of the Congo

Original comment in French

Merci beaucoup pour cette opportunité offerte aux jeunes de participer à cette conférence en ligne. En effet, je suis jeune congolais Dr la RDC passionné du développement agricole depuis bientôt 18 ans. J’ai longtemps travaillé en zones rurales de la RDC dont l’ex province du Bandundu et j’ai aussi travaillé à Kinshasa rural et voyagé au Kongo Central. Je connais bien.la problématique de l’engagement des jeunes dans l’agriculture et le développement agricole dans la partie ouest de la RDC. Mon expérience de terrain est consolidé par des missions et projets auxquels j’ai coordonnés en tant que chef de projet de 2002 à 2010  et puis 2017_2018 et comme assistant au projet et rédacteur des projets de 2011-2016'. 

Depuis novembre 2016 je suis le Représentant pays de Ypard (Jeunes professionnels pour le développement agricole) un réseau dont en juillet 2016 à sa création, nous étions 3 jeunes et à ce jour, nous sommes plus de 93 jeunes professionnels participants aux activités agricoles et plus de 450 interagissant en ligne à travers des échanges et partage d’expérience.

Sur base de mon expérience avec les jeunes, le vrai problème des jeunes africains, c’est le manque de modèle réussi ou de référence à laquelle les jeunes peuvent copier et servir de modèle. Ceci est un vrai problème. Longtemps, on a présenté l’agriculture comme activité de pauvres et des ruraux. Pourtant, Ypard Rdc à travers des visites d’apprentissage, de formations pratiques en agrobusiness et visite des modèles parviennent à drainer des jeunes dans ce secteur longtemps abandonne.  Tout le modèle présenté est copié de l’occident. Pourtant c’est un contexte difficile à dupliquer en Afrique. Les jeunes africains doivent apprendre de leurs pairs africains.

Mais aussi, des politiques n’accompagnent pas des jeunes africains et congolais pour réussir dans l’agriculture. Ceci crée une fracture.  

En dernier, il n’existe pas de politiques d’emploi des jeunes ruraux et ceux travaillant dans l’agriculture.

English translation

Thank you very much for this opportunity for young people to participate in this online conference. Indeed, I am a young Congolese Dr. from RDC who has been passionate about agricultural development for almost 18 years. I worked for a long time in rural areas of the DRC including the former province of Bandundu and I also worked in rural Kinshasa and travelled to Kongo Central. I am familiar with the issue of youth engagement in agriculture and agricultural development in the western part of the RDC. My field experience is reinforced by missions and projects that I coordinated as project manager from 2002 to 2010 and then 2017_2018, and as project assistant and project writer for 2011-2016'.

Since November 2016, I am the Country Representative of Ypard (Young Professionals for Agricultural Development), a network in which, at its creation in July 2016, we were 3 young people. To date, we are more than 93 young professionals participating in agricultural activities and more than 450 interacting online through exchanges and experience sharing.

Based on my experience with young people, the real problem of young Africans is the lack of a successful role model or reference which young people can copy and which can be used as a role model. This is a real problem. For a long time, agriculture was portrayed as an activity of the poor and rural people. However, through apprenticeship visits, practical training in agribusiness and visiting models, Ypard Rdc manages to attract young people in this sector long abandoned. The whole model shown is copied from the West. Yet it is a difficult context to replicate in Africa. Young Africans must learn from their African peers.

But also, policies do not accompany young Africans and Congolese to succeed in agriculture. This creates a fracture. Finally, there are no employment policies for rural youth and those working in agriculture.

Alfred Adjabeng, Reach Out to Future Leaders Movement, Ghana

I am Alfred Godwin Adjabeng, founder and executive director of Reach Out to Future Leaders Movement, a youth-led non-profit start-up in Ho, Ghana, West Africa.

Our organization’s flagship project School Farms, empowers local community schools to be food secured by helping them grow their own food, through community-driven farms whilst using the same space to gain skills in agriculture through our Agriculture Skills Development Program for Rural Young People (ASDPYP). Since 2014, we have piloted our project in the Northern, Upper West and Volta regions of Ghana, in four (4) schools and have served close to 20000 students. 

Rural schools in Ghana are increasingly faced with the challenge of funding school meals due to limited government support, the rise in food cost and market failures. This challenge is affecting school attendance, retention and active teaching and learning activities in schools.

Also, despite the huge arable land in rural areas coupled with the opportunities that the agriculture sector presents in these areas, rural young people continue to migrate to urban areas in pursuit of ‘unexisting’ jobs. Rural young people are the future of food security, yet around the world, few young people see a future for themselves in agriculture or rural areas.

School Farms program recognize the link between education, nutrition and skill development and we are improving access to all. School Farms is a rural community-based school feeding support program that empowers local community schools to grow their own food whilst creating a space to help students gain practical skills and explore opportunities in Agriculture.

Our Agriculture Skills Development Program for Rural Young People empowers rural young people for local agriculture development through our Agro Mentoring, Best Student Farmers and Agriculture Skills Development Handbook initiatives. We are mainstreaming rural young people in agriculture.  According to Ghana's Ministry of Food and Agriculture, the average age of a farmer in Ghana is 55. This is a threat to the future of food security. 

In our four years of working with rural young people, we have recognised that until we empower rural young people to add value to agriculture produce, connect them to the urban market, help them adopt sustainable agriculture technologies and increase access to capital, we may be underestimating their potential of promoting local agriculture development. Our school farms program is empowering more rural young people to desire for themselves a career in agriculture. 

See the attachment below

Schoolfarms_Flyer.pdf