Foro Global sobre Seguridad Alimentaria y Nutrición (Foro FSN)

Most of the times, I hear people say 'make agriculture sexy'. After working with rural young people, mostly rural young farmers, I have realised that in order to encourage more young people into agriculture we need to introduce them to sustainable agriculture tools, smart technologies, connect their farms to urban market. 

Modern agriculture sustainable technology makes agriculture sexy! 

Major Achievement and success stories.

I am Yves Stephane NGALEU, from Cameroon and I work with the Cameroon government under the ministry of agriculture and rural development as agriculture chief of post, Extension worker and agriculture advisory service actor in a rural community call NKOLNTSA, based at SA’A, LEKIE, CENTER Region - Cameroon

I am a member of civil society Organisations where I work actively as volunteer to participate in the achievement of the United Nation Sustainable Development Goal (SDG). From these organisations I have achieved exceptional skills on social entrepreneurship, fundraising, etc. that permit me to work more than just a civil servant.

I would like to search my experience when I was just nominated agriculture chief of post and I was working under my sub divisional delegate who have little knowledge on social entrepreneurship, fundraising and on the SDG.

I was nominated to a post having more than 20 big villages with about 22 000 population with 6600 farmers (the largest post of the sub-division) in a rural area with little or no mobile network, thus no internet connection. The only budget that was allocated to me was for transport, no communication, no office materiel etc. the agri-post is not built so there no office. The local population of that community are fully in agriculture but they don’t consider the government agent in the field due to the fact that they were abandoned and neglected by the other chief of post. Their major needs are capacity building, farms equipment, available market and finance

The challenges I had, was to motivate the local population, build their capacity and ameliorate sustainably their farm productivity.

The beginning was not easy because there no office. I had to put in place a strategy that will permit me to touch effectively almost all the villages. I put in place a time table by village, I targeted active and non-active farms group that I started working with them. It was not easy to have most of the members during the working sessions. I then decided to innovated and organise an agriculture seminar.

To best organise this seminar I needed support from partners, from my hierarchy and the mayor. The potential partners were base in the Capital city which is about 72km² from the village, I needed communication network to raise awareness on the event I started by allocating to the capital city where I am still living up to date, I created a blog (my first blog). With some of the local population we identify the main objective of the seminar, which were presented to my hierarchy and rejected by them due to the fact that they have little or no knowledge on social entrepreneurship and fund raising, and they said there is no budget for such a seminar at their level and that I don’t have the necessary capacity to organise such an event. I then put in place an organisation group made up of the local population to carry out the project, their capacity where being reinforce on leadership, management, on event planning and follow up. We identified and contacted some partners. Some of them respond positively by providing farms equipment and input for farmer and educative material for the event. Those who contacted my hierarchy where discouraged and didn’t support us. In other to raise funds for feeding and refreshment, farmers propose a registration fee. I put two month of my salary on to support the organisation of the event.

At the end of the event, we had about 100 farmers impacted, learning materials, pesticides and farm equipment distributed to farmers.

Due to this seminar, farmers now considering me, all villages even those who did take part at the event are asking for a second edition, I now count 2 new farmers organisations, recently on June 2018, one of the groups received a donation from the regional delegate of agriculture.

Here is the link of the report https://enjealnysagro.wordpress.com/2017/12/11/rapport-du-seminaire-du-poste-agricole-de-saa/

This is the link for blog https://enjealnysagro.wordpress.com/

ENGLISH TRANSLATION BELOW

Ma Contribution à la consultation virtuelle

1. Expérience en tant que jeune dans le secteur agricole

Mon expérience en tant que jeune Africain impliqué dans le secteur agricole de mon pays est une riche expérience qui peut être décrit à trois (03) niveaux.                     

• Issu de parents agriculteurs

Très jeune, j’ai été impliqué dans le secteur agricole grâce à mes parents qui étaient des paysans. Nous avions une vaste plantation où l’on cultive diverses variétés de cultures. Les Week-ends et certains après-midi, nous allions aider nos parents dans les activités champêtres.

• Conseiller des groupements et coopératives de producteurs agricoles

Après mes études universitaires, j’ai commencé à travailler dans une organisation d’appui aux producteurs. J’étais chargé de l’accompagnement des groupements et coopératives de producteurs pour le développement de leur activité. Travailler dans le monde rural et surtout agricole m’a donné une véritable passion de contribuer à lutter contre la pauvreté dans ce secteur. Cela m’a donné l’opportunité de réfléchir aux problèmes rencontrés par les acteurs du secteur agricole et de participer à la conception des solutions et approches pour l’amélioration de la compétitivité du secteur et des conditions de vies des acteurs.  

• Acteur de promotion des jeunes dans l’agrobusiness

Le troisième niveau de mon expérience en tant que jeune Africain impliqué dans le secteur agricole a été en tant qu’acteur de promotion des jeunes dans l’agriculture. Au regard des nombreuses potentialités que présentes le secteur agricole pour résorber le problème de chômage des jeunes et aussi pour booster ce secteur, j’ai travaillé à motiver les jeunes à s’intéresser à ce domaine. A travers les conférences, les communications sur les filières porteuses, les visites et la facilitation de l’accès aux services (technique et financiers), plusieurs jeunes aujourd’hui ont un avenir prometteur dans ce secteur. Par la même occasion, j’ai lancé mon projet personnel à travers la mise en place d’une exploitation pour donner l’exemple à d’autres jeunes.

Deux raisons m’ont conduit à m’engager dans le secteur agricole ; la première a été mes parents que j’aidais dans les activités champêtres. Cela m’a permis d’appréhender les difficultés rencontrées dans le secteur et de découvrir les nombreuses opportunités qu’on pouvait saisir. Au fil des années, j’ai appris à regarder et à voir autrement le secteur agricole. La deuxième raison est la passion que j’ai développée pour ce secteur au fil des ans et pour exploiter tout le potentiel que présente ce secteur en termes d’opportunités. Pour moi, le secteur agricole est devenu le domaine où l’on peut travailler et gagner décemment sa vie. Comme dans les autres domaines où l’on enregistre des milliardaires, on peut aussi devenir milliardaire dans le secteur agricole.

2. Principales réalisations et histoires de réussite

A ce jour, j’ai pu capitaliser cinq (05) principales réalisations que sont :

• Avoir accompagné au moins 10 coopératives et groupements de producteurs de plus de 300 membres sur la gestion de leur exploitation agricole.
• Avoir facilité l’accès au financement d’au moins 100 producteurs sur la filière ananas et anacarde
• Avoir accompagné la commercialisation des produits agricoles par la mise en place de mécanisme innovant de multi-acteurs. L’assurance d’un marché d’écoulement des produits facilite l’accès des producteurs aux services techniques et financiers.
• Avoir conseillé des jeunes entrepreneurs agricoles à mieux structurer et développer leur micro entreprise agricole et sensibiliser plus d’un millier de jeunes sur les opportunités du secteur agricole.
• Avoir lancé ma startup dénommé BioAgri Bénin qui promeut l’agriculture durable, respectueuse de l’environnement et résiliente aux changements climatiques.

Des exemples de réussite de jeunes impliqués dans le secteur agricole dans mon pays, il y en a beaucoup dont j’en suis un. Il s’agit des jeunes innovateurs qui proposent des technologies pour améliorer les activités de production et de transformation, des jeunes entrepreneurs qui proposent des produits transformés innovants et des jeunes qui développement des approches et stratégies pour le développement du secteur agricole.

3. Questions que la Conférence de la jeunesse rwandaise devrait aborder

a) Emploi des jeunes et entreprenariat

• Quel est le potentiel de création d’emplois pour les jeunes dans le secteur agricole en Afrique ?
• L’entrepreneuriat est-il la seule solution ou la meilleure solution pour booster l’emploi des jeunes ?
• La façon dont l’entrepreneuriat est promu de nos jours permettra-t-elle de résorber le problème de chômage des jeunes ?
• Pourquoi malgré les opportunités que présente le secteur agricole, l’emploi des jeunes est toujours une problématique ?
• Pour que l’emploi des jeunes dans l’agriculture met fin à la faim et à la pauvreté, quels sont les grandes décisions à prendre à cet effet ?

b). Innovation numérique pour surmonter les contraintes associées aux filières agricoles

• Quels sont les outils numériques déjà disponibles pour surmonter les contraintes associées aux filières agricoles ?
• Et quel mécanisme peut être mis en place pour promouvoir et rendre accessibles les innovations numériques ?

c). Avenir du travail agricole ?

• Au regard de l’évolution de la technologie et des changements climatiques, quel sera l’avenir du travail agricole dans les 10 prochaines années à venir ?
• Quelles sont les solutions à mettre en place pour se préparer à ce changement (avenir) ?

My contribution to the online consultation

1. Experience as a youth in the agricultural sector

My experience as a young African involved in my country´s agricultural sector is a valuable experience which can be described at three levels.

• Born of farmer parents

From an early age, I have been involved in the agricultural sector thanks to my parents who were farmers. We had a big plantation where we cultivated different kinds of crops. At week-ends and some afternoons, we used to help our parents on the farm.

• Advisor to agricultural producers' associations and cooperatives

After my university studies, I started to work with an organization providing support to producers. I was in charge of supporting the producers' associations and cooperatives for the development of their activities. Working in the rural world and, in particular, in agriculture has given me a real passion to contribute to fight poverty in this sector. That has given me the opportunity to think about the problems faced by those working in agriculture and to participate in the creation of solutions and approaches to improve competitiveness in the sector and with farmers’ living conditions.

• Participant in the promotion of agro-business among the youth

The third level of my experience as a young African involved in the agricultural sector has been as an actor in the promotion of youth in agriculture. Regarding the many possibilities in the farming sector to absorb youth unemployment and also to boost this sector, I have worked to motivate young people to become interested in this area. Through conferences, communications through supporting networks, visits and by facilitating access to services (technical and financial), many young people today have a promising future in this sector. At the same time, I have launched my personal project by setting up a farm to give an example to other young people.

Two reasons have led me to get involved in the farming sector: the first has been my parents, whom I helped on the farm. That enabled me to learn the difficulties faced by the sector and to discover the many opportunities that one can seize. Through the years, I have learnt to observe and perceive differently the farming sector. The second reason is the passion that I have developed for this sector through the years and to make use of all the potential that the sector presents in terms of opportunities. For me, the farming sector has become the place where one could work and make a good living. As in other areas where one finds billionaires, so one could become a billionaire in the farming sector.

2. Major achievements and success stories

• To this day, I have been able to register five main achievements, which are:
• To have supported at least 10 cooperatives and associations of producers and more than 300 members in the management of their farms.
• To have facilitated access to funds for at least 100 producers in the pineapple and cashew nut sector.
• To have supported the marketing of agricultural products by establishing a multi-actors innovative mechanism. The guarantee of a sales market for the products facilitates the producers' access to technical and financial services.
• To have advised young farming entrepreneurs in the improved structure and development of their farming micro-enterprise and to have raised awareness among more than a thousand young people of the opportunities in the agricultural sector.
• To have launched my startup, called BioAgri Benin, which promotes sustainable agriculture, respectful of the environment and resilient to climate changes.

Examples of success of the youth involved in the agricultural sector in my country are many, of which I am one. It is about young innovators who adopt technologies to improve production and transformation activities, young business men and women who propose innovative processed products and young people who develop approaches and strategies for the development of the agricultural sector.

3. What the Rwanda Youth Conference should address

a) Employment of youth and entrepreneurship

• What is the potential for the creation of employment for the youth in the agricultural sector in Africa?
• Is entrepreneurship the only or the best solution to boost employment among the youth?
• Will the way in which entrepreneurship is promoted today permit the reduction of the unemployment problem among the youth?
• Why is it that despite the opportunities offered by the agricultural sector, employment of the youth is still a problem?
• So that employment of the youth in agriculture may put an end to hunger and poverty, what are the main decisions to be taken?

b) Digital innovation to overcome the constraints associated with agricultural networks

• What are the digital tools already available to overcome the constraints associated with farming sectors?
• What mechanism could be established to promote digital innovations and make them accessible?

c) Future of commercial agriculture?

• In relation to the evolution of technology and climate change, what is the future of agricultural endeavor over the next 10 years?
• What are the solutions to be implemented to prepare for this change in the future?

AKPAKI K. Philippe

Chargé de programme Formation et Emploi des Jeunes

DEDRAS ONG

Parakou, Bénin

Dear All, 

I am Justin from Libera, I have been very supportive and always eager in the development and the sustainability of my country through agricultural activities and investment as a way forward to durable solution in ending hunger and poverty.

1. My experience as youth in the agriculture sector;

I have realized that the farming age of my country, that is the age group of the farmers, as well as agricultursts in Liberia lies greatly between 40 - 65 or 70 yrs, Which means the youths are not really engage into agriculture And the agriculture sector here is in a dying or falling age or status and in this case there is no vigorous development and continuity in the growth and development of this sector.     The few youths who have realized their potential for the agriculture sector have been striving to thrive this sector, but have not been provided with the opportunity and responsibility (employment) to explore their ideas or abilities into this sector.

Secondly the farming population of my country here lack of entrepreneurial spirit and as the result agriculture has not yet Been realized as a business or trade on occupation making the sector nonindustrial or nonbeneficient to the social economic livelihood of the country, besides youth empowerment or opportunity through agriculture is also stalled as the effect of that.

Knowing that agriculture is the concrete way to better life and the status of my Country agriculture sector prompted me to go into agriculture to serve as role model and mobilizer to the growth and development of the sector.

2. My major achievements and success stories;

My major achievement is that, as a young boy who was born in an agrarian family and realized that agriculture is the only way to Peaceful and sustainable Life, and envisage to invest in agriculture by maneuvering to study agriculture and today I have degree and experiences in agriculture which have now given me the opportunities to achieve my vision or Goal for agriculture by possitively impacting my society.

3.what the Rwanda Youth Conference should Address;

The Conference should address Youth Capacity Building especially on Best Management Practice (BMP) and using their ability and potential in the sustainability, growth and development of the agriculture sector with the objective of exposing them to Opportunities (employment)  and ending hunger and  poverty in Africa through sustainable agriculture.

My recent three years’ experience in the food security industry within the unstable region of eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo through the agro pastoral production has let me understand how sustainable food security in my country is more of youth implication. Although a multitude of Nongovernmental Organization and development Cooperation agencies pretend to bring their response by throwing money and technology to local uneducated farmers, the big gap still have to be covered in terms of how those with enough physical and intellectual capacity, the youth, need to be mentored, get involved, learn and teach each other from their experience, create distribution canals, enhance cooperation and build a sustainable food secure economy. This is the great question I want to address in my country knowing that, with a statistics of Youth approximated to 54%, it is far more an asset than a threat and the policies for food security and nutrition should go in that direction. From my humble participation, I cofounded the Youth Forward Congo Organization gathering youth for agro business promotion in eastern Congo since one year and a half and realize that the very big percent of the youth didn’t undertake any action yet, some who take actions don’t have enough capabilities or mentorship and also those who are supposed to help do it with disinterest or in a disoriented manner (not addressing the real challenge).

Q/ In an environment of cultural diversity and post-conflict , where agriculture is considered a vulnerable and poor people's profession. What can be done to awaken the agricultural entrepreneurial spirit within the youth?

Youth is the Engine in Agriculture as solid solution ending Poverty because youths are energetic, they can produce big quantity of yields and they can cover a big scope hence productivity.

Youths can practice Agriculture activities in the day time and evening time hence high productivity.

Youth can run across the world the practicing Agriculture activities, crop production is the key for youth to ending poverty.

Dear All,

Thank you to you all for sharing your stories (and stories of youth that you know) in agriculture and for highlighting the issues/questions that you would what to be considered/addressed at the Rwanda Youth Conference.

I want to hear more about major achievements and success stories by youth in your countries. Here is a question that I have re-phrased to elicit more information:

• Do you have (or are you aware of any) youth role models in agriculture in your countries? Who are they? What have they done or are doing to serve as role models to other youth who want to engage in agriculture?

Based on the contributions of the following colleagues, I have questions for them:

• Fredrick O Ogutu (Kenya): you indicated that your organization has have many successful businesses (by youth that you have trained) in peanut, spices, fruits and vegetables etc. Can you elaborate on one of the success stories or possibly request the youth that you have trained to share their story?
• Mamadou Djemory Diabate (Côte d'Ivoire) - are you aware of any youth that have graduated from your school or college who have continued in agriculture? Any success stories, in agriculture, among your graduates?
• Aklilu Nigussie (Ethiopia): are you aware of youth in agriculture that have adopted any of the technologies that you and your colleagues have developed at the Ethiopian Institutes of Agricultural Research? If yes, would say that they are doing well in their work?
• Lazarous Ng`ambi (Zambia): you say that you want to go into agriculture. What are you currently involved in or doing? Specifically, what do you want to focus on in agriculture?
• Makhosi Mahlangu (Italy): you have a very good initiative in place. Are you also planning to engage other youth, especially those in agriculture, in Africa in your activities to also empower them?
• Chonyui Duna (Cameroon): based on your experience in agriculture, what would you want the Rwanda Youth Conference to do that would help you and other youth to achieve your/their greatest wish?
• Ernestine Umuhoza (Rwanda): in your view, how should youth in Africa be involved in agriculture?
• Baboucarr Kebbeh (Gambia): out of the over 200 youth enterprises that are members of the Youth Chamber of Commerce, how many (or percentage) would you say are associated with agriculture?

Regards,

Justin Chisenga

Lead Facilitator

We have been in agribusiness in Sierra Leone for over three years in which we grow vegetable, groundnut, Moringa etc. and we are still facing challenges. Low yield of harvest because of limited resources to expand our farming system.

The challenges we are facing as youth in Africa involve in agriculture are numerous and some of them are:

• Access to loan
• Capacity building on agriculture related programs
• Trust from people you are working with
• Access to information on risk management

Alhassan Sesay

I came from the Gambia, where more 60% of our population is young people, and Agriculture is leading employer and contributor of our GMDP ( 20-25), However the youth unemployment rate has gone to 38% and youth are not been very interested in the sector. This sector is predominant dominated by women.

In my view and from experience, African Governments, FAO and other partners must invest more in Agriculture, and we must finds ways to make Agriculture SEXY, attractive to youth of our African continent.

Our government have not yet leverage on the youth population of our continent, and this has end to many of our youth losing focus and hope in our leaders.

In my Country, I have led the establishment of first ever Youth Chamber of Commerce in 2016, now has a registered membership of over 200 youth enterprises. We are currently implementing a four year project under the EU and has 7 partner organisation working with Youth in business.

I believe I am not a youth but I respond to the questions basing on my vast relationship with youths ... what I see and what I hear them say...

How would you describe your experience as an Africa youth engaged in the agriculture sector in your country? What motivated you to engage into the agriculture sector?

Youth are reluctant to engage in agriculture. This is because it needs patience, innovation, hard work and a lot more. The city life has bigger attractions to the youth of today. Technology growth, using social media and more is more exciting in the cities than rural areas. Even jobs...one gets a pay at the end of a job or month in relation to waiting for four months to get an earning.

Agriculture is a lot more than any other job. It calls for passion, interest, patience, innovation, name it. That said, youth that engage in agriculture are often successful.

What have been your major achievements? Do you have any experience or innovative ways that have helped you in your work that you would want to share? Do you have a success story – either your own or any other that you are aware of - of youth engaged in agriculture in your country? What is the story?

My major achievements in working with the youth is enticing them back to agriculture. There those that have actually settled back to the rural settings. Those in the city, I encourage them to practise urban farming and with time, start investing back in the rural areas either by buying farm land or hiring farm land. I walk along with them in showing them how to reap maximally from the land, starting from doing your financial forecasts, research of the targeted crop to plant and markets and more, even before you break the ground. It’s amazing how they adhere. But to me that makes me happy because they are achieving their city life at the same time farming. We need the youth in farming because they are the farmers of tomorrow.

Yes I have some success stories: Mathias. He lived with his uncle and was often attracted to the computers at our office in Mayuge district. One day i noticed that he was at the computers instead of school, and when I asked, he said that it was due to school fees. As an institution we took on this challenge of his and he obtained a certificate in business administration at a prestigious university in Kampala. When he completed, he was totally drawn to the city life and was looking for a job there. To me, it meant that we were losing yet another farmer to the city life. I enticed him back by giving him a volunteer job at the office, a post he held and upgraded to project office. Today, he manages his own youth farmer’s network in rural mayuge. It has spread to i think four districts in the east. They produce honey, make candles, shampoo, and other products. I am very proud of him and many others that I have pulled back to till the land.

If given an opportunity, what question would you ask the experts at the Rwanda Youth conference on each of the three sub-themes – a). Youth Employment and Entrepreneurship, b). Digital Innovation to Overcome Agriculture Value-Chain Constraints, and c). Future of Work in Rural Economy - of the conference?

a). Youth Employment and Entrepreneurship

How are you repackaging farming to make it more enticing to the youth?

b). Digital Innovation to Overcome Agriculture Value-Chain Constraints

The youth are attracted to digital innovations, and fast tracking ones. Is there any way you are using these to get the youth in rural areas involved as well?

c). Future of Work in Rural Economy ?

There is a huge gap between the rural and urban and especially in regards to farming. What initiatives have been taken to reduce this divide? And especially the ones that make the youth more convinced to stay in the rural areas and till the land?