Youth in agrofood systems

Entrepreneurship in agriculture is often touted as one of the innovative approaches to addressing poverty and food insecurity in developing and emerging economies. It is also considered a means out of unemployment for the rapidly increasing youth population in many developing economies. The challenge for entrepreneurs in agriculture, or “agripreneurs”, is to innovate and spawn ideas and approaches to spur on agricultural production to meet future demand; this challenge is particularly targeted at unemployed youth, who are expected to rise to the challenge not only of farming, but of being entrepreneurial. »

In many continents, young people represent a promising, yet untapped potential for disruptive innovation for transforming food systems. Though, many young people struggle to make the transition from education to work to become financially independent. In the fifth CoP Youth meet-up on January 23, CTA and WUR presented a comprehensive framework and brief on supply and demand factors impacting youth employment & entrepreneurship. »

This issue of the Urban Agriculture Magazine explores challenges and solutions raised by migration pressures with a focus on youth employment in city region food systems. It involves practical examples from several countries and from small to mega-cities, urban, periurban and rural spaces. It explores opportunities for and barriers to youth employment along the entire food system. »

What is the relation between youth employment and education in agriculture and migration? And how should organizations working to improve food security via employment and education programs relate to the political agenda of mitigating (international) migration? These were questions discussed in another Community of Practice Youth in food systems Meet-up on September 11, 2018. »

Africa is facing high levels of unemployment among the youth, a growing youth bulge, rapid trends of urbanization, and unsustainable agricultural food systems. Young people in Africa are a world of challenges and opportunities and should be seen as key actors. But how can we enforce their role in the needed agricultural transformation? »

During the Youth Caravan in the Youth workshop on agricultural transformation at the foodFIRST conference, five young professionals from diverse backgrounds introduced themselves and their link to agrofood. After this, a Q&A was moderated by Ama van Dantzig from the social enterprise Dr. Monk. »

The IITA Youth Agripreneur initiative (IYA) is a youth-in-agribusiness model which was established to address the issue of unemployment and also provide a platform along the agricultural value chain for unemployed youth to generate wealth and create jobs. »

During the foodFIRST conference on June 1, the F&BKP, AgriProFocus and YEP organized a “Youth Market Place” where several NGOs, networks and knowledge institutes presented their work related to youth in agro-food systems. In this article you can find details on the successful youth initiatives of these organizations. »

This two-pager aims to summarize a state of the current art on the knowledge in this field. It builds on the knowledge gathered in the F&BKP Knowledge Portal on youth. It covers heterogeneity of youth, potential of mainstreaming and youth-specific interventions as well as comprehensive policies amongst others. It focuses specifically on youth employment and job creation, as it served as a background document to the workshop “youth agripreneurship in agricultural transformation” on June 1, 2018 »

On May 22, 2018, a CoP meetup around youth in agribusiness and food systems was facilitated by AgriProFocus and F&BKP. The objective of the CoP is to share recent work on youth in food systems, provide feedback on each other’s work, identify knowledge questions and ideas for joint action, find innovative solutions for urgent issues, and to get to know other stakeholders working in this field as well as inspiration for collaboration. »

This new explorative study, conducted by KIT, WCDI and YPARD, provides insights directly from youth through case studies in Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. It explores the potential advantages and challenges of cooperative membership for young women and men, and the advantages and challenges for cooperatives to increase youth participation. »

AgriProFocus, in collaboration with F&BKP, hosted the first Community of Practice on Youth in Agribusiness on September 5, 2017. Objective of the CoP is to share recent work of members , provide feedback, identify knowledge questions and ideas for joint action, find innovative solutions for urgent issues and inspiration for collaboration. »

INCLUDE and the Ministry of FA organized a conference on “Boosting youth employment in Africa: what works and why?” on May 30, 2017. The F&BKP participated in the conference because of its work on similar topics from a food security perspective, including the role of youth in agriculture and on social entrepreneurship. »

Many policies and programs are being implemented that should bring youth back to work in agriculture, but they are often underpinned by assumptions that could undermine the effective augmentation of food security and employment. To start the discussion by shedding some light on the do’s and don’ts when working with youth, we organized two meetings on youth inclusiveness in agricultural transformation. »

Africa’s rapid population growth of youth is increasingly becoming a key priority on the development agenda. Looking at the cases of Mali, Kenya and Ghana, a quick scan study of the F&BKP, INCLUDE and AgriProFocus provides some new insights into the challenges of the agricultural sector, food security and youth unemployment. »

On May 12, the F&BKP and the AgriProFocus network used their complementary strengths to organize a meeting on youth in agriculture to facilitate alignment and coherence in concrete activities of different stakeholders in this field, and to identify possible knowledge questions. »

Youth comprise an increasingly high portion of Africa’s population. Yet a large part of Africa’s youth are currently unemployed. The Food & Business Knowledge Platform (F&BKP) together with the INCLUDE Platform for Inclusive Development Policies have written a policy paper that looks at the potential of promoting youth employment within processes of inclusive agriculture transformation. »

Combatting youth unemployment in developing countries has become a priority issue of policy agendas. In the context of increased global food insecurity, emphasis has been put on engaging youth in agricultural development. »

In developing countries, over 60% of the population is below the age of 25, and those youth populations show no sign of stopping. In these countries, the youth play an important role in meeting the future challenges on access, availability and use of food in the context of trends of population growth, urbanization, globalization and climate change. »

On January 20 a seminar was organized on the topic of entrepreneurship and innovations in developing countries for young peoples’ involvement in farming. Participants were mid-career professionals from Africa and Asia as well as Netherlands-based professionals representing knowledge, policy and private institutes. »

On December 9, a seminar was held at CDI Wageningen on the topic of youth in agriculture. This item describes the results of the debates and highlights potential knowledge questions and activities that could emerge around the topic. »

This expert opinion written for the Knowledge Platform on Inclusive Development Policies, underlines that agriculture has an important role to play in tackling the youth unemployment challenge in Sub-Saharan Africa. »