The Power of Youth for Agricultural Transformation in Sub-Saharan Africa

30 September 2020, Washington D.C. – Sub-Saharan Africa is home to almost one billion people, and more than 60 percent are under the age of 25. With Africa’s population expected to double by 2050, unleashing the intellectual and creative capital of Africa’s youth is imperative to meeting the region’s agricultural development goals and corresponding food and nutrition security benefits.

To highlight what governments, institutions and companies are doing to bring about this agricultural transformation, FAO North America, the Alliance to End Hunger and Humanitas Global co-hosted a timely webinar. Nabeeha Kazi Hutchins, Founder of Humanitas Global, which serves as the Secretariat for the Movement to Advance School-based Agricultural Education (SBAE), moderated the session.  

Her Excellency Dr. Joyce Banda, Former President of the Republic of Malawi, in her keynote address stated, “It is youth who have the bold ideas, they are the effectors of change, they hold us accountable, and ask the purest of the questions to ensure justice, health and opportunity for all.” She added that with Africa’s boom in population, we have to utilize and embrace the role of youth and ensure that education is more accessible to them.

“We need youth to see agriculture as a viable and profitable business opportunity – one that builds up communities, is valued across the Continent and creates jobs,” she added.  For this to happen, she elaborated that governments should make agricultural advancement accessible to farmers and youth, donors must invest in youth-centered pathways for uptake, and train them as business leaders and social entrepreneurs.

In introducing the panel session, Kazi Hutchins noted the need for deeper global and multi-sectoral collaboration that works for agriculture and youth. She stated that “reshaping our global food system and the agricultural landscape requires a youth-centric lens.”  Knowing that agriculture is a key driver for prosperity in the Continent, Kazi Hutchins noted that it is critical to reach and invest in youth where they live and learn – in schools and their local communities, and create inspiring opportunities to experience agriculture from business and innovation perspectives. This is the intention of the Movement to Advance SBAE.

Under the oversight of Humanitas Global as Secretariat, the core pillars of the Movement to Advance SBAE include: building a multi-sectoral coalition to develop and share the SBAE evidence base, driving advocacy for policy and program integration of SBAE, and catalyzing funding to build national and local capacity in Sub-Saharan Africa for the implementation of SBAE at scale. 

Hamady Diop, Head of Technical Cooperation and Advisory Services of the African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD), shared the Comprehensive African Agriculture Deployment Program (referred to as the Malabo Declaration). The Declaration aims to create job opportunities for at least 30 percent of the youth in agricultural value chains by 2025, and provide women and youth opportunities to engage in agri-business. However, there are many obstacles preventing this, such as access to land, resources and markets, low agricultural productivity, and the uncertainty among youth about whether or not agriculture can be viable and profitable, he shared.

Diop expressed the need for more extension services to provide opportunities for youth to be active in the agriculture sector and become entrepreneurs. The Malabo Declaration has created the chapter’s “Jobs for Youth in Africa” and the African Youth Charter to help support these initiatives.

Ben Leyka, CEO of the African Agri Council echoed sentiments raised. Leyka mentioned that part of the issue with youth not seeing agriculture as a career choice is that they often associate it with backbreaking work at the subsistence level. A key factor in moving away from this view is to treat agriculture as an important component in the global economy and food value chain. “Agriculture is both a science and a business that requires an entrepreneurial approach, plenty of risk capital and favorable policies,” said Leyka.

The African Agri Council aims to bridge the gap in connecting the private sector, investors, policymakers, youth and other key stakeholders along the value chain to create agricultural impact for the long-term.  He also emphasized the importance of an early education in agriculture – that agriculture cannot be an afterthought or seen as a last-resort option. Leyka noted the need to be intentional about embedding the experiential learning of agriculture within the school curricula to can change how teachers teach and youth learn. This can support the overall development of youth leadership and a mindset for agri-entrepreneurship.

Fetien Abay, Interim President and Vice President for Research and Community Engagement at Mekelle University in Ethiopia stressed the importance of empowering women and youth in transforming agriculture. She called for the need for greater attention and investment to drive the dissemination, uptake and adoption of agricultural innovation and evidence so that these transformative practices are available and accessible. Abay noted the need to be intentional in creating meaningful intersections among youth, agriculture, innovation and achievement in order to change the paradigm of agriculture in Africa.  

Abay is also the Ethiopia National Coordinator of the Feed the Future Post-Harvest Loss Innovation Lab, which is led by Kansas State University. “In Ethiopia, approximately 88 percent of the post-harvest loss management is conducted by women, but access to capacity building and incentives targeted to them is almost nil,” she said. Abay emphasized the importance of updating the academic curriculum from the earliest of ages, as well as ensuring access to labor, education, land, finance and investments, to effect change. “Africa's youth is heterogeneous, and government, donors, and companies need to realize this in order to support and target them properly, and change the way Africa farms and feeds the world” she added.   

In highlighting current efforts to reach youth with agricultural innovation in schools, Trent McKnight, Founder of AgriCorps and Former FFA National President, shared his organization’s efforts in Liberia and Ghana to integrate SBAE into local school curricula. McKnight noted that innovations are only as good as their adoption rate, and an effective way to frame the efficacy of agricultural innovations is to shift a farmer’s reference point and perspective through initiating youth, as early adopters. Developed more than 100 years ago, SBAE has an established legacy in countries around the world, including many African countries. McKnight noted, “SBAE encompasses four different bodies of knowledge – diffusion of innovations, experiential learning, positive youth development and behavioral economics, and is a holistic system of delivering agricultural innovations within a local context.” 

Guided by an experiential learning model, SBAE enables youth to be early adopters of agricultural innovations and change agents for the diffusion of these innovations. “SBAE becomes an economic incubator for the entire rural community – supplementing existing agriculture and education initiatives, youth development, empowerment and agricultural productivity within local contexts,” he noted.  McKnight also shared details of a randomized controlled trial (RCT) underway in Liberia, under the leadership of Dr. Chris Udry, a development economist at Northwestern University.  The RCT is examining the transmission of agricultural knowledge through students, who receive in-school training, and their effectiveness as diffusers of modern agricultural knowledge to rural households.

Cherrie Atilano, CEO and President of AGREA International and Scaling Up Nutrition Lead Group Member, has been a youth and agricultural development advocate throughout her life. Bringing forth the global youth voice, with a frontline agribusiness and entrepreneurial perspective, Atilano said that youth are at the table, and we need to remove the barriers for them to flourish and prosper in agriculture, just as she has. “When I see soil, I don’t see dirt.  I see gold,” she said.

Atilano shared her own early experiences in agriculture and how she was drawn to it because she received both hands-on farming experiences and elements of an agricultural education as a young girl in school. She noted that this powerful combination ignited her desire to pursue higher education in agriculture, and launch AGREA, where youth as agricultural teachers, trainers, and entrepreneurs are a core part of the business model. Based in the Philippines, Atilano noted the need for cross-cutting global support of youth by having programs that provide mentorship and funding to promote their development in agriculture, ideas, and business plans.

In his closing remarks, Vimlendra Sharan, Director of FAO North America, said that ensuring that we commit to using a gender lens and that youth are part of the decision-making process is central. He underlined the need for the 3 M’s: money, mentorship and market. He highlighted that FAO has over 20 projects in Sub-Saharan Africa that aim to involve youth in rural employment, green jobs, agripreneurship, and skill development through the Farmer Field Schools, the FAO-UNIDO “Opportunities for Youth in Africa” initiative, and other flagship programs.

This webinar displayed key challenges and opportunities for youth to power agricultural transformation in Sub-Saharan Africa. As H.E. Dr. Banda noted, “the young people of Africa have never disappointed, and we must not disappoint them.”   

Watch the live-stream.

Here is a Twitter thread from the session.