IBADAN, Nigeria, Apr 8 2021 (IPS) - From small towns to big cities, sub-Saharan Africa has the fastest urban growth rate in the world. The continent’s population is expected to double by 2050 with the youth representing 60% of the overall population.

The UN Department of Global Communication, for example, projects that for the next 15 years urban growth is set to double for several African cities: Dar es Salaam will reach over 13 million inhabitants and Kampala will exceed seven million.
Alongside this explosion in urban areas, rural population growth remains strong too. The FAO’s Rural Africa in Motion Atlas sees sub-Saharan Africa’s rural numbers increasing by 63 percent by 2050 and the region remaining the only one in the world where the rural population will continue to grow after 2050.

Rural exodus in African cities is often linked to a search for greener pastures—which creates challenges such as high unemployment rates, low income, food insecurity, and persistent poverty. There is therefore a need to respond to the needs of the growing population in a sustainable manner. Tackling unemployment is thus a crucial step towards addressing these needs—especially in the current COVID-1 context.

Engaging the youth in agribusiness
The youth, despite representing the majority of the population, still feel marginalized from the economic mainstream. Their expectations are suffocated by market demands and limited opportunities. Higher education is growing faster than the economies, the job market is saturated, and skill shortage and lack of exposure to technology remain a constraint for African youth to integrate a career track. Some of those unable to find white-collar employment return demoralized to their rural homes or take up menial jobs, or worse, remain unemployed.

There is a need for a systemic change that targets Africa’s youth. Similarly, there is a need for an economic model that is youth-friendly at all levels. Such a model will potentially create a niche market that will cater for graduates, early-career takers, and to some extent non-school educated youth that remain vulnerable to political manipulation. A sustainable development agenda can only be fully realized if youths are mobilized, incentivized, energized, and equipped for transformation.
Writing on the status of youth in agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa, David Sarfo Ameyaw and Eugenie Maiga note that rapid economic growth over the past 15 years has not been ‘pro-poor’, occurring primarily in sectors generating relatively few employment opportunities for youth.
The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) has invested several efforts to expose the population at large and the youth in particular to the advantages of agriculture through its various programs. For instance, IITA has, for the past 8 years invested in empowering youth as actors in agriculture through training, research, employment, and entrepreneurship. This approach does not only create employment for the youth but prepares them to create employment themselves. IITA is driving the creation of youth programs that will play their role in transforming agriculture to provide Africa with a food secure future.
Agriculture employs over 60 percent of the working population in sub-Saharan Africa, excluding South Africa, and contributes about 30 percent of gross domestic product in most countries. Yet evidence in this area indicates that youth’s contribution to this sector remains marginal.

Youth initiatives in agribusiness
The Youth in Agribusiness initiatives of IITA such as the IITA Youth Agripreneurs (IYA), Empowering Novel Agri-Business-Led Employment (ENABLE)-Youth, ENABLE-TAAT (Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation), Young Africa Works-IITA Project, Youth Employment in Agribusiness and Sustainable Agriculture (YEASA), Agrihub, and Start Them Early Program (STEP) are tangible proofs of the significant role youths play in the agricultural sector. For the past few years, these programs have created a platform encouraging the participation and engagement of young school children and unemployed or underemployed youth in agribusiness.
These investments in Africa’s younger generation highlight the importance of raising the ambition of primary and secondary school students to guarantee a food- and nutrition-secure continent. This is also important in developing young female leaders in agriculture so that their acquired leadership skills will enable them to help lead the COVID-19 response and recovery efforts.
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