Premise of progress – Building human and social capital for Africa’s agricultural success
This blog by Katrin Glatzel on Agriculture for impact highlights the challenges of youth engagement in Africa’s agriculture. Glatzel recommends socio-economic intensification, the integration of innovations and practices from the fields of ecology, genetics and socio-economics to build environmentally sustainable, equitable, productive and resilient ecosystems, to improve the well-being of farms, farmers and their families. Another option is for youth to engage in business groups or associations, according to Glatzel. She highlights that to make the agriculture sector flourish and earn a good living from agriculture, it is not necessary to work on the farm. Concluding, the premise of progress for Africa’s agriculture sector rests on an enabling environment that allows innovation for Sustainable Intensification to be adopted. It should combine methods of Ecological and Genetic Intensification with appropriate investments in building human and social capital.