Liberia Agricultural and Environmental Journalists Network (LAEJN) Promote informed journalism and public engagement on agricultural and environmental nalists Network (LAEJN)
By Jonathan Stewart, Agribusiness Expert
A statement credited to Mike Jone G. Ondoy, a former President of the 4H Club Municipal Federation in the
Filipine says, invest in the youth to invest in farming to invest in our future. This statement is truly a message to our land. Because when we invest resources in the youth of today, they will invest their skills, time and energies in the agriculture sector of our land while we secure a sustainable future through their today’s actions.
As it stands, the youth are still left behind – the process, the plan and the investments have not cover them adequately. Our approach to building a strong food system that protects rights to food and nutritional safety can or will not present any yield in the absence of the youthful population, particularly, their energy, passion and innovation. We need them as much as they need us.
I believe we can not beat hunger and limit poverty, our greatest enemies, if we do not invest in the youth so that they can invest in farming.
Over 60 percent of our population are under 35 years, with this, i believe strongly that our investments to feed the nation should heavily focus on their interests, activities and transformation.
A Mercy Corp’s research revealed that only 3 percent of Liberian youth are interested in farming. This is concerning and should guide our policy actions and investment planning today.
There are questions that spin through my head daily; how does our current projects target youth, do the criteria and selection methods speak to the realities of the youth, looking at thier limitations, vulnerabilities and capacity? Can we have a youth-focused initiative that exclusively fund their innovative and problem-solving agripreneriship efforts across urban and rural communities?
If we forget the youth, our national efforts to secure a sustainable food system will definitely achieved minimum results despite huge financial investment in the millions. This has not worked in the past and is not working at the moment no matter how much publicity and branding we do!
Available data point to one thing, our youth aren’t really looking the way of agriculrure as compared to other sector. This is alarming and should makes us attach some urgency to youth in agriculture development which will strengthen the capacity of existing youth-led initiatives and make them work as a way to inspire, motivate and attract more youth to the agriculture sector.
I have put some recommendations below to help us all move beyond the current status with intentional steps to making our sector youth-driven:
👉 Setup an Internship Program that serves as a platform for young graduates or graduating students to learn and transition to labor force. This can be a flagship initiative of the Ministry of Agriculture. When our youth graduate, there is limited opportunities for employment or to acquire practical industry skills and experience, this is critical because it affects their employability. Interestingly, the limited and available industry jobs come with high demand on experience, skills and education requirements. This makes more of the young people graduating from agriculture institutions to either switch to other livelihoods activities such as motorcycle riding, gold mining and other non-agri or food activities which makes it a risk factor for our food security.
👉 Develop Agriculture Program that exclusively targets young people who are doing some incredible things or willing to start one. I see this works in countries that i have been to such as Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, Sierra Leone, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Senegal, Togo and India. The youth can not compete with the elders in this field adequately, therefore, they need a flexible and youth-sensitive investment initiatives that meet their needs and serve them considering their limitations, vulnerabilities and current realities.
👉 Implement a Market Development System mechanism that seeks to enable entire value chain and not just a one-sided investment that leaves other activities and actors unsupported; this undermines inclusive growth in the sector and limit the impact of existing projects. Most time, where the problem lies is when you support production but leave input, processing, marketing and other components untouched, this leads to weak value chain and an unproductive sector.
👉 Setup a youth In Agriculture Department/Desk at the Minstery of Agriculture to engage, support and gather feedbacks from the youth. I believe strongly, that this syatem could be used to get first hand information on the priorities, interest and challenges of the youth community, which can be used to guide policy formulation or performance, assess program impacts and involved the youth in sector governance.
I could provide more here but I think we can start with these transformational actions while we collectively change the narrative. If we abandon the youth now, we are seen like a Military General that goes to war with no armed men following.
