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    • Dear All members,

      It is refreshing and exciting to see the world moving towards the future thus thinking of the youth, agriculture, ICT and rural development. Engaging rural youth in agriculture with youth led ICT solutions coupled with the development of needed infrastructure is key to Africas growth, ending hunger and poverty. I will like to address the questions for this all important discussion;

      1. Experience as a Youth in the Agriculture Sector

      I have experience as an advisory service provider in the agricultural sector for ten years, as an agripreneur in poultry and livestock production, and innovative financing of small holder farmers in rural areas. All these is motivated by one thing "feeding myself and others without relying on the external world".

      With my work as an advisory service provider (extension officer) i had the opportunity to train many including youth in crop production, livestock production, and value chain processes, etc. Taking up a current training of rural farmers in the rice and maize value chain in Ghana on Farmer Business School (FBS) with the objective of explaining the financial implication of agricultural technology application, I have observed that young farmers that attended the training programme have the willingness to pursue farming but are looking for simple technologies to overcome the drudgery involved. They also want rural infrastructure of roads, schools, and telecommunication developed so as to transport their inputs with ease; educate themselves and children; and access Agricultural ICT solutions to enhance productivity.

      I started poultry and livestock production in 2015, due to the realization of the high import bill associated with poultry product in Ghana. The objective of the poultry enterprise was to increase in poultry production by farmers. This is achieved through production day old chicks, rearing them for six week (pullet stage) and sell to both domestic and commercial farmers. With this several households established backyard poultry farms to serve their egg and meat needs. One key factor leading to my poultry business model was the practical training I received from Creating Champions in Livestock Agribusiness Incubator that have enhance my skills in poultry breeding, hatchery processes and business management. This shows the importance of skills training and entrepreneurship in agriculture.

      Studying trends on how savings is perceived and the unavailability of financial service providers in the rural areas, we have developed an innovative savings and financing scheme for small holder farmers in the rural areas and piloted since 2016. Small holder farmers are put into groups, taken through financial literacy education and savings done through produce or anything of value. The Project is named Save Everything of Value project (SEVAP) since the agricultural produce that they have is of monetary value which is converted by a "Group Offtaker" and the monetary value placed into their individual accounts. Withdrawals and other payments are made through mobile money which help reduce the risk and financial burden of travelling to financial institutions far from the locations.

       

      2. Major Achievements and Success Stories

      I have impacted many farmers including youth with adequate knowledge in agriculture to transform their lives.  Undertaking the poultry business has initiated more than 100 households to keep backyard poultry for their egg and meat needs and trained the youth in poultry production. With the innovative savings scheme, small holder farmers have been given the opportunity for financial inclusion to enhance their livelihoods.

      Raising finance for poultry project was a major challenge that was solved by consulting friends to help with some money which helped to start the business.

       

      Below are few success stories of youth engaged in agriculture in Ghana:

      1. Cynthia Aveh (Founder- TrustFarm Ltd and Greencredit)

      Cynthia is a graduate of the Founder Institute Accra cohort 2017 where she founded Trustfarm and Greencredit respectively. Trustfarm is founded on technology to provide a sustainable market for food crops and livestocks for small and large holder farmers. Greencredit leverage on blockchain technology and initial coin offering to raise fund to plant more trees, and save the ecosystem through beekeeping. She has the ambition as a young woman to impact the world through agricultural entrepreneurship.

       

      2. Micheal Sakyi (CEO-SM Golden Bee)

      SM Golden Bee is an Agribusiness company founded by a young man for beekeeping and production of soap, cream with the honey, wax and propolis. He also offers practical training for other youth especially in rural areas. He objective is to protect the ecosystem, preserve bees for increase plant pollination and supply of valuable bee products to the society.

       

      3. Gideoa Padi Konotey (CEO-Goat Masters Ltd)

      Goat Masters Ltd is an agribusiness firm focused on value addition to goat with special focus on value chain form; rearing, butchering, processing, packaging, marketing and distribution of livestock into various consumables (http://www.goatmastersgh.com/).

       

      4. Trotro Tractor Ltd

      A team of young passionate Africans using internet of things (IoT) and technology to change the lives of smallholder farmers through the provision of platforms which makes agricultural mechanization (Tractor) service available, accessible and affordable to enhance productivity, improve efficiency and reduce post-harvest loss (http://www.trotrotractor.com)

       

      These and many other youth exist in the agriculture space in Ghana that need support and the encouragement to achieve the goal of ending hunger and poverty.

       

       3. What the Rwanda Youth Conference Should Address

      a). Youth Employment and Entrepreneurship:

      What harmonize effort is been taken on the African countinent to ensure youth are employed in Agriculture?

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

      What step are been taken to address the infrastructural constraints associated with digital innovations in Africa?

      What is the policy position on Digital Innovations?

      What financing scheme exist for digital innovation in the Agriculture value chain in Africa?

      c). Future of Work in Rural Economy - of the conference?

      The Future of work in rural economy will improve only with decent rural infrastructure. Can we have a resolution for Governments to tackle the rural infrastructural deficient along side embarking on youth employment in Agriculture to address hunger and poverty?

       

    • What enabling environment is needed to ensure sustainability of youth in agriculture capacity development initiatives?

      There are four ecosystems that will enable the sustainability of youth in agriculture. These are the financial environment, market, Infrastructure and institutional environment. As already mentioned agriculture enterprises require more patient financing than any other enterprises due to the nature of activities involved. Government need to set aside special financial schemes to promote youth in agriculture to raise the needed capital for investment. 

      Market is key for survival in agricultural space. The deliberate creation of market for young people products through a policy to procure produce from youth in agriculture for government interventions such as school feeding will sustain their enterprises. When offtakers for produce of young people are assured, their involvemnt in the agricultural value chain will be sustained. 

      Insfrastructure in term of roads, ICT, and others must be provided to support the youth in agriculture. These facilities are needed to enhance operations along the value chain. For youth to be engaged in decent employment in Afrca there must be decent infrastructure provided in term of good roads, ICT facilities, social amenities, Schools etc. 

      Finally Institutions established to ensure business and agriculture must be more youth friendly. Business registration systems and processes must be aligned to meet the needs of the youth. Standard and certification authorities must educate and orient youth to produce products of standard for both local and international markets. 

      When all these four ecosystems are put in place for youth in agriculture, sustainability of capacity bulibing initiatives will be assured. 

    • What post-capacity development support do the youth need?

      The post capacity development support that youth need is mentorship and coaching. There must be a systematic guidance to the ventures or businesses young people undertake. My work as a mentor under Next Generation Cocoa Youth Program (MASO) project funded by MasterCard Foundation's Youth Forward Initiative and implemented by Solidaridad and Ashesi University in Ghana has shown that guidance and direction for youth helps to bring out excellent results. Youth in rural areas who had little idea about business where taken through a Business Academy to acquire skills and knowledge to identify business opportunities in their environment. Coaches and Mentors are then introduced to them to share their experiences in business start-up, motivate and build the confident of mentees. Through this successful businesses were established by young people in their communities.

      What can the youth do to support each other in developing their skills and capacities?

      As mentioned by Halimatou youths need to form networks. Youth network such as Young Professionals for Agricultural Development (YPARD) need to be supported financially to facilitate the creation of opportunities and relevant networks for young people. The YPARD Ghana chapter recently organized an Agribusiness Networking Cocktail to bring together various companies and organizations in agriculture and agribusiness. All drinks, meat and items for the event were sourced locally from young agripreneurs. Through the event, Goat Master Ltd (www.goatmastersgh.com) the suppliers of Goat Kebab for the event has secured the opportunity to serve his goat kebab to the staff of BEIGE, one of the leading investment companies in Ghana. The Agribusiness Network Cocktail is part of a programme called Farmers Connect under the Future Farmers Initiative (FFI) designed by YPARD Ghana and its partners.

      Youth networks must also serve as a link between the young agriprenuers, authorities and agencies of governments. The various youth groups existing in any particular country must join forces to push government and authorities to release funds for youth enterprises with flexible payment terms.

    • What are the examples of existing post-capacity development sustainability initiatives for youth in agriculture in Africa? What works and what does not? Are there any success stories and good practices that can be shared?

      There are keys factors that will lead to the sustainability of capacity development initiatives. These include space (office or land) for youth to exibit the skills and knowlegde acquired, finance to implement innovative ideas and business mentoring. A good example is the Kosmos Innovation Centre(KIC) AgriTech Challenge in Ghana where youth were trained in business modules, team building and other relevant soft skils to establish and manage thier business in the agricultural technological space. Team formed by youth were tasked to come put with ideas to solve real agricultural problems to compete for two winners price of $100,000.00. Each winner is given $50,000.00, an office space to operate from, mentors to guide them and other supports needed for establishement. Winners from the KIC AgriTech Challenge since its inception in 2016 include TrotroTractor Ltd, Ghalani, AgriInnova, and QualiTrace. Trotro Tractor Ltd (www.trotrotractor.com) for instance is a powerful platform created to link farmers to tractor operators therby solving mechanization problems of farmers. This solution in mechanization is made possible because of a solid system put in place KIC and MEST for post capacity development sustainability. 

      There is also the need to create interaction platforms between the trainers, trainees and other relevant stakeholder to support the enterprises established by the youth. Follow ups are key element of success. Follow ups makes youth more responsibility in their businesses. 

      What works is a capaicity building with all things provided thus a whole package capacity building with funds, networks, space (land), mentorship and right business environment. For instance a business environment that registration of businessess take a long time, interest rates on loans very high, market barriers etc will not lead to post capacity development to be sustained.  

    • 1. What are the biggest challenges youth in Africa face after going through youth-specific capacity development initiatives in agriculture?

      The challenges that youth faces after going through capacity develoment (CD) initiatives include access to productive resource to establish themselves with the skills they acquired after CD initiatives. These resources include funds for establishment of agricultural enterprise, space or land for operations, business networks and market access. Youth requires initial funds to establish which is not readily available. Even where funds are available the interest rates on these funds are pegged at market rate that is unattractive.

      Land or space required for operations are expensive or not available for youth since they do not have easy right of ownership. Youths are also lacking the required institutional networks to roll out the products and services into the market. Networks are required to link products and services generated to available market for profits to be made. 

      Authorities, boards and institutions in the agriculture space in many African countries are mostly to far away from the youth. They do not have easy access to these authorities and agencies to get their businesses operative and standardized.

    • Agricultural extension and advisory services (AEAS) are important in developing the capacity of families to improve upon practices to enhance their livelihood. It is important to assist service providers in their various communities to provide efficient service delivery. One key constraint hindering the empowering of youth in AEAS is the lack of necessary logistics for service delivery. Youth in AEAs need logistics such as adequate means of transport (motorcycles, car) to access communities for the provision of extension services. 



      There is the need to build the capacity of youth in AEAS on indigenous plants knowledge that are rich in nutrient in various communities. This approach is been adopted by the Women in Agricultural Development (WIAD) of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Ghana. Agricultural extension agents are educated on the planting of available leafy vegetables that the family can easily cultivate and use in the preparation of their diets. 



      Capacity building of youth in AEAS is required on gender issues and innovative ways to address them. Most AEAs are not abreast with the dynamics of gender issues in the various communities in which they work. This is because the development of new approach and methodologies will require the in depth knowledge of the current gender situation in the communities.   



      There is also the need for various agencies of government tackling nutrition in both women and children collaborate for effective delivery and monitoring of impact. For instance in Ghana, WIAD under the Ministry of Food and Agriculture needs to work closely with the Maternal Health Unit of the Ghana Health service that carry out public education for pregnant women and nursing mothers. These agencies need to work together and share approaches that are working to provide the right nutrition for the family.