Africa’s youth urged to get involved in the Agriculture sector
By Imani Dlamini
African youth in rural areas could be at the forefront of solving many of the challenges faced by continent such as high unemployment, food insecurity and poverty through Agriculture.
Ghanaian Community Development practitioner, Vozbeth Azumah is also a farmer who encourages other young people to get involved in agriculture do the same believes that “Agriculture is the key to Africa’s prosperity”. He adds:
“However, such prosperity […] can only be open if the right people who hold these keys are ready to get involved in the sector and unleash Africa. These people are the youth”
More than 60% of the population is under the age of 25 – and the issue of youth unemployment being a continent-wide problem. At the same time, Africa has the highest rate of youth unemployment with many young people leaving the rural areas for a number of reasons including war, drought and in search of job opportunities, according to the United Nations. Agriculture could provide the youth with employment opportunities and a chance to be at the forefront of feeding the nation and creating jobs for themselves and others.
However, in Ghana specifically, Azumah says many young people are not very interested in Agriculture due to the challenges of the land tenure system, lack of knowledge about it, and limited funding sources.
He says that in his community the majority of the people engaged in farming are between the ages of 40–80 years of age.
“These are the people who feed the whole nation. So what happens if all these people are not there any longer?”
Recognising this in February 2019 the United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development( UN IFAD) teamed up with Rwandan-born award-winning choreographer and IFAD ambassador for rural young people, Sherrie Silver, famously known as being the mastermind behind the moves in Childish Gambino’s music video for song, ‘ This is America’ and Mr Eazi, Nigerian singer, songwriter and entrepreneur to launch a global youth-led campaign to urge world leaders to invest in young people in rural areas.
The campaign is called ‘Our Future is Here’ and it is a global, youth-led campaign to urge world leaders to invest in rural youth. People who want to get involved in the campaign can part in the ‘ Dance for Change’ challenge where people can upload a 15-second video of them dancing using the hashtag #danceforchange. on the mobile app, Tik Tok. IFAD will use the video creations uploaded on the platform to create a virtual petition which will be handed over to world leaders in 2020. Its purpose is to raise awareness about young people’s potential to feed the world, grow the economy and end extreme poverty.
In an interview with the Guardian Silver said:
“We want world leaders to know young people in rural areas are a tremendous resource with the power to feed the world and transform food systems if given the opportunity”.
Africa Global News Publication
