Nothing for the youth without the youth
[News]
Ten young agricultural professionals chosen from 150 applicants from 52 countries and a pressing issue: growing the role of youth in agriculture. From Facebook for farming to handbags with a social conscience to rebuilding landscapes in the wake of war, these are only some examples of the boundless imagination of these youth in pioneering successful agricultural initiatives.
Based on ILO and FAO estimates, there are over 1.2 billion young persons in the world today. It is estimated that youth make up 25 percent of the total working age population globally. About 90 per cent of young people are born in developing countries, where around half of the total population lives in rural areas.
In light of these numbers, why are more youth not working in agriculture? Why isn’t agriculture able to attract and keep more of them and provide them decent livelihoods?
Leading into the Global Landscapes Forum, held at the University of Warsaw on 16-17 November, the Young Professionals’ Platform for Agricultural Research for Development (YPARD) and CIFOR organized a Youth Session to address recurring issues for youth in agriculture. Co-sponsored by GFAR the CGIAR and CTA, the session showcased youth driven initiatives that are proving that agriculture can be attractive to young people when innovative solutions are applied to meet certain key challenges.
The first round of presenters spoke to the challenge of the negative perception of agriculture among youth and obstacles to opportunities for sustainable entrepreneurship. Too often young people filled with hopes and dreams come to the realization that there are no jobs, and though the world of agriculture could give them hope, the image of hard work is tainting agriculture as a viable career path. Lack of targeted communication, finance, educational opportunities and collective empowerment only exacerbate the problem.
How can we debunk the negative myths about agriculture by presenting it as a profitable venture, showcasing success stories and providing incentives?
Last year, Joseph Macharia opened a Facebook page with a simple goal: to tell the stories of youth in agriculture, to celebrate them, and in the process draw others to the farms. As he began posting photos and inspirational stories of farmers, he saw not only his likes grow, but also his understanding that information needs to be relevant to youth, targeted to them. Macharia quickly realized the potential of social media to become a platform where youth in developing countries can market themselves and their products. This became a springboard for his local microfinancing enterprise that is empowering youth in his community. Check out Mkulima Young on Facebook.
Lack of financing options by governments and financial institutions impede the realization of numerous entrepreneurial initiatives. Nadia Manning-Thomas is linking development, youth and retail in an unconventional way. Danaqa World Chic links quality products made in developing countries with consumers in developed countries.
Danaqa handbags and accessories carry the surprising stories of the women and youth who produce them using locally sourced raw materials and with an attention to ethical principles. It provides an opportunity for mentorship to youth on how they can get involved at all points of the agricultural value chain, which takes the focus off the drudgery associated with agricultural production and serves as encouragement to enter the sector.
Combating the unglamorous perception of agriculture is also a question of taking measures to make youths’ voices heard at the policy level. FANRPAN has been implementing a campaign to develop the capacity of youth to engage in policy processes. Aware that “piecemeal and haphazard engagement of youth is not enough”, FANRPAN has created an alliance of young people that brainstorm on ways to share their success stories with policy makers.
A voice from the audience reminded that when we engage in agricultural research, we are never only in our own technical world, but also in the world of policy. Governments want relevant research that is evidence-based, place-specific and that meets a need. The need for communication to package research in a way that policy makers will be receptive to emerged as a take home message.
The potential of communication to reach youth through traditional forms like broadcast media and face-to-face contact was explored and taken up by the audience as a major point of discussion. A study carried out by BBC across more than 33,500 interviews with young people aged 15-24 shows that only 10% of rural youth feel informed about how to respond to climate change—and they want to have access to information from the media. As Joseph Macharia’s Facebook page nears 10,000 likes, newspapers are picking up on the movement, which can reach more youth and help to further raise awareness of the challenges they face.
The second half the Youth session moved to the challenge of capacity building and the power of groups, starting with two inspirational stories from young men who are working to improve degraded landscapes in their local communities in Africa. Under the tyranny of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), Otim Joseph saw firsthand in a refugee camp the decimation of Uganda’s forests, which after war’s end led to the ‘second war’ of climate change.
Deciding to take action, Otim began talking with youth about the problem of the degraded landscape, showing them how it personally affected them. Now he leads a campaign to mobilize young people to reforest the local countryside that in 3 years has succeeded in planting 2 million trees from locally sourced seeds. Read Otim's blog here.
Kenyan Stephen Kibet, for his part, is tackling soil erosion caused by years of poor land management practices using mapping techniques. But realizing that the expensive GIS mapping in which he was trained had little practical applications in his community due to the high cost, Stephen decided to put the tool of open source mapping in the hands of young people.
He identified youth groups who could learn to use the software and found that doing research with the youth engages them, helps them expand their IT skills and thus makes them more marketable. “Capacity building is not just about money,” he remarked, “but about common interest.” Mentoring is key, and it gets passed on to others. Read Stephen's blog here.
The outcomes of this discussion will be fed into the GLF outcome document, which will go to the UNFCCC with the hope that the enthusiastic voices of these young ambassadors for sustainable landscape approaches will be heard.
Post by Erna Klupacs and Charles Plummer
Photo credit: Neil Palmer/CIAT
Posted on 16/11/2013
