How to Be a 21st Century Farmer
The Young Africa Works Summit aims to bring together a community dedicated to finding solutions to youth unemployment in Africa. One of our primary goals for the Summit is to engage young people, ensuring their voices, perspectives and ideas are heard. As part of this, we will be sharing a series of blogs written by young leaders working in the agricultural sector in Africa.
There are several promising reasons why agribusiness should be considered one of the best current and future sources of employment in Sub-Saharan Africa. The United Nation’s Population Fund (UNFPA) estimates that the world population will grow to 9.8 billion by 2050, with more than half of this growth occurring in Africa.
Africa’s next generation is in a good position to benefit from this growing population, as billions of people will need food. Increasing food production for a growing population can create jobs and enterprises for young people.
Despite its promise, young people are not interested in agriculture. By engaging young people and exposing them to market opportunities and innovative agribusiness approaches that can greatly reduce risks, young people can recognize the tremendous potential of agriculture.
At personal level as a young African, I feel privileged that I have worked and will continue to work with youth towards opening up their mindsets and tapping into this growing potential. I consider demand-driven skills development as a powerful approach towards the application of improved inputs, climate-smart methods and value addition. The use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for acquiring knowledge and reaching out to markets is a major stepping stone towards achieving profitable engagement in agriculture.
Having been born, raised and educated in the digital development era on this resourceful continent, I have seen a lot of opportunities and transformations. The technological developments in ICTs have opened more doors than we had imagined. It is widely believed that ‘information is power’, and so my generation can tap into this power through digital technology and gain access to markets, education and knowledge and financial services – all of which are key to social development.
In my view, ICTs are one thing that would separate a 21st century farmer from those of the past. A 21st century farmer who uses mobile money to make transactions with remote clients, uses social media to influence and reach out to new and existing markets and accesses weather updates through a mobile phone can run a healthier, more profitable agribusiness than their predecessors. The use of ICTs can change the way farming used to be, and more importantly they could make agriculture and agribusiness more attractive to youth, making it more profitable and secure than ever before.