Young People & Agrifood
Sub-Saharan Africa is home to over 200 million young people aged 12 – 24, with the youth population predicted to peak in 20 years. While young Africans are increasingly mobile, around three quarters still live in rural areas. By tapping in to their skills, energy, creativity and willingness to take risks, African youth could play a critical role in revitalising rural communities and enhancing agricultural productivity. But evidence suggests young people are choosing not to pursue livelihoods in agriculture, resulting in an ageing of the farming population. This could jeopardise possibilities for agriculture-led growth across the continent, yet the views, perspectives and choices of young men and women are rarely considered in research and policy making in the agriculture sector.
FAC’s Future Farmers research programme aims to fill some of the knowledge gaps and enable identification of policies and programmes that will support young people in rural areas to flourish. Researchers will interrogate questions such as:
- Who are Africa’s future farmers? What is the evidence for an ageing of the farming population and what are the implications for agricultural growth? Is there anything preventing young people from entering or remaining in agriculture?
- What kinds of livelihoods are rural youth pursuing and what underlying factors influence their choices? How is this different for young men compared to young women?
- What policies, programmes and activities will give Africa’s rural youth the knowledge and skills they need to benefit from, and contribute to, more vibrant rural economies?
- What role do young people play in natural resource management and how do they engage in preventing and adapting to climate change?
- Is the failure to deal with agrarian development a root cause of youth involvement in conflict in rural Africa? Should development return to youth unemployment as a key issue?
Latest articles
Young people and agriculture in Africa – new report
August 26, 2016 / Young People & Agrifood A new report assesses the available research on African young people’s engagement with agriculture, and analyses how this evidence is reflected in current European Union (EU) policy and programming in Malawi, Ethiopia and Kenya. Young People and Agriculture in Africa:
Young African Researchers in Agriculture (YARA) network
November 3, 2014 / Young People & Agrifood The rural young population of Africa is rapidly growing and is expected to rise until at least 2040, in a context of rapid change in agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa. The key objective of this network is to promote robust empirical
Finding the ‘opportunity space’ for young people and rural jobs
September 9, 2013 / Young People & Agrifood Over the last decade, both agriculture and young people have become increasingly prominent on African development agendas. Many have concluded that engagement in production agriculture is an obvious (if not the obvious) opportunity through which to address the problem of
Busting myths about youth and agriculture
February 14, 2013 / Young People & Agrifood The debate on youth and agriculture has often assumed that simply encouraging young people to farm will solve the triple problem of unemployment, undernutrition and an ageing workforce. But the attitudes of young people themselves have largely been ignored, as
IDS Bulletin: Young People and Agriculture in Africa
October 31, 2012 / Young People & Agrifood A new IDS Bulletin asks what young people really mean for the future of African agricultural policy. The articles in the new IDS Bulletin on Young People and Agriculture in Africa are drawn from the international conference on 'Young People,
Employment and food security: broadening the debate
October 31, 2012 / Young People & Agrifood On 17th October 2012, at the 39th Committee on World Food Security (CFS) in Rome, the Young People and Agri-Food Theme of Future Agricultures co-hosted a side event on rural employment and food security, with FARM, CIRAD and AFD, The
Event: Employment and Agricultural Value Chains at CFS 39
October 10, 2012 / Young People & Agrifood We are involved in a side event at the Committee for World Food Security on the role of employment in agricultural value chains for food security this month. The event, organised by FARM, AFD, Cirad and Future Agricultures Consortium, is
Video: Youth and agriculture policy
August 24, 2012 / Young People & Agrifood In these mini-interviews filmed at the Young People, Farming and Food conference in March 2012, researchers, advocates, young people and representatives from business talk about the problems with policies related to young people and the agri-food sector; and the differences
Small grants for youth & agriculture research: winners announced
August 20, 2012 / Young People & Agrifood The winners of the small grants competition for research into young people and agri-food have been announced. The grants programme was launched in May 2012 by Future Agricultures, to fund research and other work to pursue a research agenda following
Youth and farming: presentations to Ethiopian economists
August 8, 2012 / Young People & Agrifood Our research on Young People and Agriculture was recently highlighted in a series of presentations by Future Agricultures researchers at the 10th International Conference on the Ethiopian Economy, organized by the Ethiopian Economics Association. The presentations below can be downloaded
Youth and farming in Senegal
June 20, 2012 / Young People & Agrifood The REVA plan in Senegal aims to encourage young people to return to agriculture. Mohamadou Sall, Future Agricultures Consortium researcher, has led a study into the plan's impacts, which found that it has helped to change attitudes, introduce more modern
Young People and Agri-Food: Small Grant Competition 2012-2013
April 27, 2012 / Young People & Agrifood Call for ApplicationsDeadline: 15 June 2012 The Future Agriculture Consortium, through its Young People and Agri-Food theme, seeks to address three constraints to more appropriate policy in relation to the “young people and agriculture” problem in Africa: A lack of
Winners announced: young people, farming & food media competition
February 17, 2012 / Young People & Agrifood We're delighted to announce the winners of our Africa-wide journalism competition on young people, farming and food. The competition was held in the run-up to our Young People, Farming and Food conference in Ghana, 19-21 March 2012. We had over
HOT TOPIC: Agribusiness, FAC and young people
January 4, 2011 / Young People & Agrifood Many researchers and development professionals with an interest in poverty, agriculture and rural areas in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) view agribusiness with suspicion. For them, agribusiness is synonymous with big business, transnational corporations, globalisation, international capital, export crops and large-scale plantations.
Women and Girls: Farmers of the Future?
March 19, 2010 / Young People & Agrifood In recent years there has been a resurgence of interest in the role of women in agriculture. It has long been recognised that women perform a substantial part of the labour on family farms, particularly on food crops. Greater levels
Women and Girls: Farmers of the Future?
March 19, 2010 / Young People & Agrifood In recent years there has been a resurgence of interest in the role of women in agriculture. It has long been recognised that women perform a substantial part of the labour on family farms, particularly on food crops. Greater levels
Youth Aspirations and Expectations
March 19, 2010 / Young People & Agrifood FAC Future Farmers has launched a programme of research on youth aspirations for 2010-11. African rural youth have experienced significant changes in their economic, social and cultural contexts over the past few decades. Globalisation, urbanisation and migration, as well as
Youth Aspirations and Expectations
March 19, 2010 / Young People & Agrifood FAC Future Farmers has launched a programme of research on youth aspirations for 2010-11. African rural youth have experienced significant changes in their economic, social and cultural contexts over the past few decades. Globalisation, urbanisation and migration, as well as
Africa’s Future Farmers
February 5, 2010 / Young People & Agrifood The economic, social and cultural contexts of agriculture are changing fast, as evidenced by significant shifts in the patterns of food production and consumption. An increasingly globalised world also means that there is now greater access to fast-evolving communication and
Africa’s Future Farmers
February 5, 2010 / Young People & Agrifood The economic, social and cultural contexts of agriculture are changing fast, as evidenced by significant shifts in the patterns of food production and consumption. An increasingly globalised world also means that there is now greater access to fast-evolving communication and
Future Farmers
January 14, 2010 / Young People & Agrifood Youth’s inclination toward agriculture and future farmers was highlighted in regional consultations. Schools children were asked to describe their homes in the past present and future. We put the images that children created on display. Their views far surpassed their