Claims are made that Africa's farmers are getting older. The blame is put on young people's decreasing interest in farm work, lack of skills and access to resources - but are these assumptions, and the policies to address them, based on reliable evidence?
A stronger evidence base on farmer demographics and barriers to entering the agricultural sector is needed.
The debate on youth and agriculture has often assumed that simply encouraging young people to farm will solve the triple problem of unemployment, undernutrition and an ageing workforce.
But the attitudes of young people themselves have largely been ignored, as FAC member Jennifer Leavy argues in a new blog for the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.
A new IDS Bulletin asks what young people really mean for the future of African agricultural policy.
The articles in the new IDS Bulletin on Young People and Agriculture in Africa are drawn from the international conference on 'Young People, Farming and Food' in Ghana, March 2012. This conference examined how young people engage with the agri-food sector in Africa and how research findings were being integrated into policy processes.
Read Jim Sumberg's opinion piece:
Growing their own jobs? Agriculture, unemployment and the threat of a ‘lost generation’ of rural Africans
On 17th October 2012, at the 39th Committee on World Food Security (CFS) in Rome, the Young People and Agri-Food Theme of Future Agricultures co-hosted a side event on rural employment and food security, with FARM, CIRAD and AFD,
The event highlighted the importance of broadening debates in agriculture and food security from production to include other rural activities directly linked to agricultural value chains (from inputs through to agro-processing of food and non-food products).
We are involved in a side event at the Committee for World Food Security on the role of employment in agricultural value chains for food security this month.
The event, organised by FARM, AFD, Cirad and Future Agricultures Consortium, is at the 39th Committee on World Food Security on 17th October 2012 in Rome.
Speakers include Bruno Losch (Cirad, World Bank) Jennifer Leavy (Future Agricultures Consortium, IDS, University of Sussex), Tobias Takavarasha (NEPAD Agency), Ibrahima Coulibaly (Coordination nationale des organisations paysannes du Mali) and Olivier de Schutter (UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food).
Future Agricultures has launched new African regional hubs in Ghana, Kenya and South Africa.
An international conference on the future of the agrifood sector in Africa
19-21 March 2012
Accra, Ghana
Visit the conference website
Overall focus
Questions
Youth and policy processesAssessing the extent of, roles and experiences of young people’s involvement in policy processes in sub- Saharan Africa. How are the dominant international policy discourses limiting the focus on some forms of youth politics?
Future Farmers? Exploring Youth Aspirations for African AgricultureDemographic trends point to more young people in the African population than ever before – approximately 70 percent of Africa’s 1 billion people is under the age of 30. Across the continent many young people are reportedly choosing not to pursue livelihoods in agriculture, especially as farmers. If this is the case there are clear implications for the future of African agriculture, at a time of renewed government, donor and private sector investment in the sector given its links to economic growth, poverty reduction and food security.
Young People & Agrifood