Proceedings discussion No

Mary Odusegun, Npower Agro, Nigeria

1. Experience as a Youth in the Agriculture Sector

I believe that Agriculture is the backbone of an economy. I am a Plant Breeder. I am very interested in agriculture and that was what made me to apply as NAGRO volunteer in the ongoing NPOWER Programme in my Country Nigeria. So far I have gathered a lot of experience through trainings and seminars organized during this programme. I know some youths who have started farming and earning some money through this programme. In the near future I am planning to go into large scale farming. The only challenge now is the continuity of this programme which will be terminated very soon. Continuity and follow up with youths should be discussed in this conference. Also Youths need to be encouraged with loans to carry out their plans. If the Youths are encouraged to start something on their own, then our problems are half solved.

Thanks

Donald Houessou, Centre d'Actions pour l'Environnement et le Développement Durable, Benin

Dear all,

Thanks for the consultation. 

The Centre d' Actions pour l' Environment et le Development Durable in Benin conducted in 2017 a study to explore the youth profile regarding their implication in agribusiness. The report provides insightful results and shows that youth are heterogeneous and should be categorised before any initiative of youth implication in agribusiness. The study reveals four categories of youth: 'Undecided no-entrepreneurs', 'entrepreneurs with agricultural training', 'entrepreneurs without agricultural training' and 'no-entrepreneurs interested by agribusiness’. Further, the cross-analysis of these categories with some indicators of the business environment in agriculture shows that they cannot succeed in this business environment unless some capacitive imperatives are given to them. Hence, policies should consider the profile of youth in their programmes, support the improvement of the agricultural training curriculum by including capacities imperatives and improve the business environment in agriculture.

Therefore, the experts at the Rwanda Youth conference could discuss for a). Youth Employment and Entrepreneurship, how to mainstream the youth profile and capacities imperatives in the policies and curricula, respectively. 

Find attachment below

Rapport_Profils des jeunes en Ag au Benin.pdf

Regards.

Donald Houessou

Makhosi Mahlangu, African Food Revolution, Italy

Am fortunate to be part of a group of over 40 scientists including not less than 10 food scientists. We are from different parts of Africa. We are a group which intends to use disruptive thinking to develop the food sector in Africa. Our goal is to build rural entrepreneurs who are the future of food production systems in Africa. We are food revolutionists who are using 2 basic methods as our foundation for food processing in Africa that is heat and fermentation techniques. Most of the members have done their Food Science degrees in Italy which is considered the modern pioneers of the modern food industry. The same development techniques used by farmers in Italy can easily be used on the African continent. A lot has to be done to drive the food industry in Africa and feel that basic food processing techniques should be at the fingertips of all rural food producers in Africa. Our group is called the African Food Revolution and our activities can be viewed on our website which is www.africanfoodrevolution.org. It is imperative that we use passion, intuition, novel technologies and basic food processing techniques to fully exploit the African food market and create wealth and employment in food production platforms.  

Please find the attachment below

AFR COMPANY PROFILE EZINKULU.pdf

Samuel Kalu, Young Professionals in Agricultural Developement (YPARD), Nigeria

Hello All,

It is my delight to contribute to the ongoing consultation. I would like to address three of the topics the consultation centres on.

1. Experience as a Youth in the Agriculture Sector

My experience as a young person involved in the agricultural sector in Nigeria has been sweet and sour, sweet because I grow my own food, most of them anyways and also make money from growing it when I sell the produce. I also train other young people living close to me, on my farm various crops they can make money from and those far away using the internet (WhatsApp) and their success makes me happy. Sour because of the numerous challenges involved in farming two of which for me has been having reliable experienced farm hands(despite the fact that i train young people on how to effectively grow the horticultural crops I grow and use them on contract basis, they tend to abscond especially when I need them the most). Second of is getting good land for farming near my farm. Most of the land here have been mined on and their top soil removed, hence I am settled with a small space that I have to grow in sacks by mixing soil with manure. Second is the slow acceptance of technology use in Agriculture in Nigeria, leading to no customers most of the times.

Growing up in a family farming background, I developed an interest in farming even though I wanted to study engineering. Well, I eventually studied Agriculture(B.Agric with options in Soil Science and Meteorology) and after my compulsory National Youth Service (NYSC), I started my company Agritechnovate Solutions Enterprise which so far saw me involved in various farming areas: Poultry(for egg production), Horticulture - African vegetables: Ugu(Telferia), Ewedu(Jute), Amaranth and Celosia; also crops like Cucumbers, Peppers, Tomatoes.

2. Major Achievements and Success Stories

Well, major achievement for me as a young person involved in the Agric sector in Nigeria has been starting my company, because by means of it we have been able to train many young people, setup several farms across the country, procured and installed farm technology in farms. Technologies such as nipple tip drinkers for farm animals, drip irrigation systems, sprinklers, spray tubes and other technologies for crop farmers.

As a service oriented company, we need clients who wants their farm setup or who needs our procurement and setup of farm technologies service, due to the slow acceptance of technology in the Agriculture sector in Nigeria we utilize innovative ways of getting clients using the internet. We promote our services on our Facebook Page and share them on other Agric focused groups with high follower ship, that way we reach a lot of people who may be interested in our service. We also advertise our farm technologies procurement and installation services on a popular forum board in Nigeria - Nairaland, where we have gotten most of our clients for 3 years now! We also share our services on Agric focused WhatsApp groups, and on my Agric blog.

Success story? Well, not your typical kind of success story. Like I mentioned, technology is been slowly adapted in Agricultural sector in Nigeria. I remember when we started promoting the use of technology in farming by the use of treadle pumps, drip irrigation, sprinklers at all there was zero to nothing response, many farmers prefer to wait for rain or use only a petrol pump and one hose to irrigate 1 acre, however in recent times more and more people have seen the need to embrace the use of these technologies to make farming easier and attractive to the youth, until Africa as a whole adapts the use of technology in farming, most of its young population will never want to do agriculture or anything related to it!

Also learning of the success of those I have trained on various farming practices as well as those who got better results from using the farm technologies we installed for them, I feel ecstasy...That for me is real success!

3. What the Rwanda Youth Conference Should Address

If given an opportunity, I would you ask the experts at the Rwanda Youth conference, the following questions below centred on each of the three sub-themes.

a) Youth Employment and Entrepreneurship,

What incentives have you put in place to create employment for youth or empower young people already in Agriculture?

b) Digital Innovation to Overcome Agriculture Value-Chain Constraints, and

What sustainable digital solutions are available for young people to do business seemlesly across the value chain?

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

What new opportunities will be made available in the Agric sector for rural youths?