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Ralph von KaufmannUniBRAIN Facility Coordinator

Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa

Chair NIABI 2112 Panel on  Opportunities for youth in agriculture

and Grassroots Incubation 17.00 – 18.30 hrs February 7, 2012,

New Delhi, India

Opportunities for youth in agriculture and Grassroots Incubation

Namanga Ngongi,

President of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA)

African leaders and heads of state are concerned about the the role of young people and their contribution to long-term development in Africa.

Given the youthful face driving the so-called “Arab Spring,” the focus on young people at the annual summit of Africa’s leaders is both timely and fitting.

There are more young people in Africa than ever before—over two-thirds of Africa’s one billion people are under the age of 30. 

Despite increased migration to the cities, most of Africa’s young people still live in rural areas.

And most of them, whether rural or urban, are unemployed.

Africa cannot afford to miss its demographic bonus

Opportunities for youth in agriculture and Grassroots Incubation

Namanga Ngongi (cont.)

• To build a continent where people can work and live with a degree of prosperity, we must invest more resources in the land -- and in the young who live there.

• Together, these are Africa’s greatest assets.

• The market for African staple foods like maize, milk, meat, banana, sorghum, rice and millet is estimated at over USD$150 billion a year.

• This market is far larger than the export market for internationally traded African cash crops like coffee, tea, and flowers. 

• Decisions and policy processes for agriculture must relate to the youth in Africa as they are the generation that will have to ensure that the continent’s growing population is fed.

Africa cannot afford to miss its demographic bonus

Opportunities for youth in agriculture and Grassroots Incubation

Lindiwe Majele Sibanda heads the Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN).

• As efforts are being made to “re-brand” Africa to other parts of the world, African leaders have an opportunity to “re-brand” agriculture across the continent, particularly for our youth. 

To make agriculture attractive to the young, it needs greater resources—for education, for infrastructure, for improving the business environment for agriculture in ways that will raise incomes and expand the agricultural value chain. 

Rationale: Africa cannot afford to miss its demographic bonus

Opportunities for youth in agriculture and Grassroots Incubation

Lindiwe Majele Sibanda heads the Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN).

• One key need is investment in higher education—not just for the agricultural sciences, but for training in business, marketing, finance, policymaking and engineering, to create new generations of professionals who can build Africa’s agro-industrial capacity.

• This should not be limited to the tertiary level but should include a major focus on technical institutes that produce middle level technicians. 

Rationale: Africa cannot afford to miss its demographic bonus

Opportunities for youth in agriculture and Grassroots Incubation

Dr Ibrahim Assane Mayaki, Executive Secretary of the Agency of NEPAD and former Prime Minister of Niger: "Engaging African Youth in agriculture so it won't become a phenomenal bomb"

• Nowadays, more and more African countries are investing 10% or more of their budgets in agriculture.

• This will improve further in the coming decade, thanks to the inexorable generational succession politics.

Rationale: Africa cannot afford to miss its demographic bonus

For more information visit:

www.fara-africa.org/our projects/unibrain

THANK YOU