The seminar “The future of our food: what role can agri-entrepreneurship and farming innovations play to engage young women and men in the agricultural sector?” is a follow-up of earlier collaborations on topics related to youth and agriculture.

The seminar builds on the seminar which took place on December 9, 2015  entitled “The future of our food: How to engage young women and men in the agricultural sector?”, which was organized by CDI, AgriProFocus, KIT and YPARD. That seminar’s focus was mainly on food production. Now we would like to broaden towards the role that agri-entrepreneurship and farming innovations can play in engaging youth in food value chains to ensure food security.

The objectives of the seminar are to get inspired, to exchange ideas, and to learn from concrete experiences of other organisations and practitioners in the field of agriculture and agribusiness. We offer a platform to engage with partners who are working on this topic, and an opportunity to share the valuable work that is being done, and the willingness to join hands and collaborate with each other.

The seminar is an integral part of CDI’s short course Market Access for Food Security, and the participants of the course (mid-career professionals in agri-food sectors in Africa and Asia) will be participating in the event. It will take place in the Impulse building on the campus of Wageningen UR, from 9.00am until 2.00pm, including a lunch.

Programme seminar

08:45 Registration

09:00 Opening by Djura Prins and Jan Helder (CDI)

09:15 Introduction by Ken Lohento (Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation, CTA)

09:30  Keynote speech: Zayaan Khan (Slow Food Youth Network South Africa)

09:45 Keynote speech: tbd

10:00 Questions for keynote presenters

10:15 World Café pitches

10:40 World Café sessions

12:00 Plenary session debate

12:45 Final reflection and closure of seminar

13:00 Network lunch