FSN-DIALOGUE-L Archives

List for targeted stakeholder dialogues organized by the FSN Forum

FSN-Dialogue-L@LISTSERV.FAO.ORG

Options: Use Forum View

Use Monospaced Font
Show HTML Part by Default
Condense Mail Headers

Message: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Topic: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Author: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]

Print Reply
Content-Type:
multipart/related; boundary="_007_DB6PR0501MB200684B7928C3B4F70CD8254875F0DB6PR0501MB2006_"; type="multipart/alternative"
Date:
Wed, 1 Nov 2017 10:27:52 +0000
Reply-To:
FSN-Moderator <[log in to unmask]>
Subject:
From:
FSN-Moderator <[log in to unmask]>
Message-ID:
In-Reply-To:
MIME-Version:
1.0
Sender:
List for targeted stakeholder dialogues organized by the FSN Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Parts/Attachments:
text/plain (13 kB) , text/html (44 kB) , image001.png (6 kB) , image002.png (5 kB) , image003.png (5 kB) , image004.jpg (82 kB)


[FAO]





[FSN Forum in Africa]<http://www.fao.org/fsnforum/africa>





DISCUSSION No. 11   •   Digest No. 3   •   see the online discussion<http://www.fao.org/fsnforum/activities/discussions/youth-in-agriculture>





Sustaining the Impact of Capacity Development Initiatives for African Youth in Agriculture



until 17 November 2017











[icon]How to participate

Send your contribution to

[log in to unmask]

<mailto:[log in to unmask]>or post it on the

FSN Forum in Africa<http://www.fao.org/fsnforum/africa> upon registration here<http://www.fao.org/fsnforum/user/register>.

<mailto:[log in to unmask]>

***

[icon]Comment participer

Envoyez votre contribution à [log in to unmask]

<mailto:[log in to unmask]>ou téléchargez-le sur le

Forum FSN en Afrique

<http://www.fao.org/fsnforum/fr/africa>après enregistrement ici<http://www.fao.org/fsnforum/fr/user/register>.



[photo]







Dear members and colleagues,

We are happy to share an update of the online discussion “Sustaining the Impact of Capacity Development Initiatives for African Youth in Agriculture<http://www.fao.org/fsnforum/activities/discussions/youth-in-agriculture>”.

Below you will find the contributions received this week. All inputs are available on the website<http://www.fao.org/fsnforum/africa> and in the proceedings<http://www.fao.org/fsnforum/sites/default/files/files/FSNForum_africa/11_youth/PROCEEDINGS-AFRICA-Youth.docx>.

To participate, please feel free to reply directly to this email or to post online after registration. Comments are welcome in English<http://www.fao.org/fsnforum/activities/discussions/youth-in-agriculture> and French<http://www.fao.org/fsnforum/fr/africa/discussions/youth-in-agriculture>.

Thank you all and keep posting!

Your FSN Forum team

***

Chers membres et collègues,

Veuillez trouver ci-après la mise à jour sur la discussion en ligne “Favoriser un impact soutenu des initiatives de renforcement des capacités pour la jeunesse africaine dans l'agriculture<http://www.fao.org/fsnforum/fr/africa/discussions/youth-in-agriculture>”.

Ci-après vous trouvez les commentaires reçues cette semaine. Tous sont disponibles sur le site web <http://www.fao.org/fsnforum/fr/africa> et sur le compte-rendu<http://www.fao.org/fsnforum/sites/default/files/files/FSNForum_africa/11_youth/PROCEEDINGS-AFRICA-Youth.docx> de la discussion

Pour prendre part à la discussion vous pouvez répondre directement à ce courriel ou afficher votre commentaire en ligne après inscription. Vos contributions sont les bienvenues en anglais<http://www.fao.org/fsnforum/activities/discussions/youth-in-agriculture> et en français<http://www.fao.org/fsnforum/fr/africa/discussions/youth-in-agriculture>.

Merci et continuez à participer!

Votre équipe du Forum FSN











CONTRIBUTIONS RECEIVED



[icon]Haruna Adam<http://www.fao.org/fsnforum/comment/8403>, Partners in Rural Empowerment and Development (PARED), Ghana <http://www.fao.org/fsnforum/comment/8403>



Is there a role for modern technologies, including Information and Communication Technologies, in sustaining capacity development initiatives? Yes. Modern technologies plays an important role in sustaining capacity development initiatives. For instance in the project am currently working on in the East Mamprusi district of the Northern Region of Ghana, we have adopted the use of video screening in reaching out to communities and educating them on the use of improved seed, comparing the performance of farmer saved seeds to that of the improve varieties and good agronomic practices. This gives us the opportunity to educate many farmers within a short period. Also, the use of Information and Communication Technology in information dissemination via mobile phones messages to some farmer’s areas such as weather forecast and prices of produce in the local market will help the farmers in planning their activities.







[icon]Lahcen Daali, <http://www.fao.org/fsnforum/comment/8397> Morocco<http://www.fao.org/fsnforum/comment/8397>



- Susciter l'intérêt des jeunes à participer au développement en général

-  susciter l'intérêt  en eux  à participer au développement agricole par des motivations tangibles,

- Empowering les jeunes femmes et homme à tirer profit du patrimoine existant

- Renforcement de leurs capacité par des coaching in-situ par des professionnels présentant les meilleurs trains technique de production, de valorisation , de commercialisation et de communication et en fin par des aides en matière de matériel agricole adéquat, et des intrants adaptées.







[icon]Hillary Maket, Agriterra, Kenya<http://www.fao.org/fsnforum/comment/8394>



Hi All,

Thanks for this great forum and interesting discussions. I would like to voice out regarding question 2;

2. What are the examples of existing post-capacity development sustainability initiatives for youth in agriculture in Africa? What works and what does not? Are there any success stories and good practices that can be shared?

At  Agriterra<https://www.agriterra.nl/> we are working with agricultural cooperatives in Africa towards building their capacities throughout the whole value-chains (rice, maize, coffee, maize, etc). Our initiatives are also now more directed to young farmers in ensuring they are part of the cooperatives. In Kenya as country focus, in particular, we advocate for youth councils. A youth council brings together young members supplying their produces to the cooperatives and non-members who are interested in getting into agriculture. We ensure that they get organised by helping them come up with clear roadmaps on how to increase productivity, how to attract more members into agriculture and some are trained as TOTs and potential extension officers.

In further attracting these young people into agriculture, the cooperatives provide finance (loans) based on the produce or savings with them. Some are allowed to form groups even though they haven’t started supplying to the cooperative. These group loans cushion the likelihood/risk of loan default.

We also undertake peer to peer exchange for the most improved young farmers. These enables them to see the best practices elsewhere which eventually becomes an added input to them.

The main challenge is to see that management (and boards) of these organisations consistently support the young farmers and not see them as threats towards leadership positions.  We so far work with 18 cooperatives in Kenya. 5 of them have operational and or improved youth councils. Our focus is to ensure that we have young farmers having a single voice under a youth council national confederation of cooperatives. Viva!







[icon]Muhammad Mehmood-Ul-Hassan, World Agroforestry Centre, Kenya<http://www.fao.org/fsnforum/comment/8392>



1. The biggest challenges youth in Africa face after going through youth-specific capacity development initiatives in agriculture is the employability with a reasonable level of compensation and availability of humane work conditions. Youth trained in agriculture looks at other fields, such as businesses, IT, etc and does not find agriculture very "glamorous". Part of the reason is that most agricultural raw materials are not truly costed, and hence the small margins, specifically at production stage.

3. In terms of post-capacity development support, there is a big scope for youth e-networks, communities of practice, innovation platforms, etc that can keep them aware of emerging opportunities and sharing and co-learning  about how to solve such challenges through experience sharing. I think placing youth representation in agricultural policy and implementation fora can also provide country specific solutions by identifying and addressing barriers.

4. In Africa, like many other developing countries, policies alone remain inadequate. Availability of policy is no guarantee that the policies will get implemented in letter and spirit. Probably once idea could be encouraging large businesses to experiment with youth led initiatives, such as agribusiness incubator programs. Governments could, for example, provide tax rebate for business engaging youth.

5. There is a large untapped potential for universities, governments, development organizations,  and donors to work together to launch e-learning courses, Massive Open Online Courses, learning repositories, and providing space for virtual interactions. There is a large amount of knowledge on both successes and failures in empowering and engaging youth in agriculture, but this knowledge is scattered and could be shared through use of ICT. ICT could also facilitate match-making between capacitated youth and youth demand.

Another un-attended CD area is the youth capacity in agricultural science within the context of impending effects of climate change. I am not aware if any African university has even looked at revising their curricula to address new issues due to warming, shifting rain and temperature patterns etc etc. The (agricultural) science being taught and practiced in Africa is reductionist and compartmentalized in nature and needs to re-orient to newer models of inter and transdisciplinary science as opposed to multi-disciplinary organization of universities. In addition, peer review capacity is extremely lacking in Africa.

We at ICRAF had proposed a skeleton of an initiative to African Academy of Science back in 2015, but it did not materialize so far.







[icon]Maina Karuiru, Food Quality and Safety Services Ltd, Kenya <http://www.fao.org/fsnforum/comment/8389>



Africa continues to face food shortages and despite good arable land and conducive climate.

It is  in public knowledge that Africa has the youngest population worldwide- ages between 15-35 years

So what are the problem and what are possible solutions.

The problems are many and some complex, however I can point to the following as key ones

1. Continuous reliance on rain fed agricultural farming- climate changes and unreliable rains.

2. Reducing yields per unit/Hectare in the last 20 years or so and growing costs increasing at the same time making farming a loss making venture.

3. Inadequate Government policies to address challenges in Agriculture.

4. Rapidly increasing population- leading to more food consumption.

5. Post-harvest losses in some cases up to 40% of the harvested produce.

6.Inability to practice good agricultural practices e.g. adding manure or compost to farms, crop rotation

7. Poor linkages between Agricultural research an organizations and their findings with the people involved in agricultural activities.

8. Subdivision of arable land as part of cultural practice soft land inheritance and property development  in arable areas....

Solutions to these challenges in the course of the week.







[icon]Phaonel Madjita Djoumountanan, Ferme Perseverence, Chad <http://www.fao.org/fsnforum/comment/8386>



Bonjour à tous,

La question numéro 3 taraudait l'esprit de tout le monde et mérite des discussions approfondis afin de dégager les problèmes que rencontre les jeunes dans le domaine agricole. Je remercie le facilitateur de la discussion de ce rappel.

 Les jeunes ont besoin dans la phase postérieure au renforcement des capacités des soutiens allant des formations aux financements de leurs activités agricoles. Nous savons tous que les jeunes ne sont pas motivés dans la domaine agricole. Les causes de ces démotivations sont entre autres: l'infertilité des terres agricoles due aux changements climatiques, le mauvais prix de vente sur les marchés des produits agricoles. Pour que les jeunes  s’entraident et renforcent ainsi leurs compétences et leurs capacités dans le domaine de l'agriculture, il faut créer des centres de recyclage, des centres de formation. A cet effet, il faut renforcer des capacités dans le secteur public et au sein des communautés afin d'améliorer le développement des entreprises et l’amélioration de leur gestion en vue de promouvoir la commercialisation des produits agricoles. Le FAO devrait dispenser des formations dans les domaines de l’agro-industrie et de l’apport de valeur ajoutée au bénéfice des petits exploitants agricoles, la priorité doit être accordée à cet égard aux femmes, aux jeunes et aux personnes physiquement handicapées. La formation des entrepreneurs ruraux par comité, dont des entrepreneurs opérant dans la transformation et la commercialisation des produits agricoles, doit être au centre de cette philosophie faisant de l’agriculture une véritable aubaine(le cas d'arachide, le sésame, le niébé, le mil et le manioc). Les opérateurs du secteur privé doivent recevoir des informations  sur les stratégies de développement des marchés, ainsi que sur les possibilités d’investissement dans le secteur de l’agriculture, et notamment dans la commercialisation des intrants agricoles et la transformation des produits agricoles, la formation et la vente des produits agricoles.il faut aussi former les jeunes aux pratiques modernes de transformation des produits agricoles, et d’autres connaissances et compétences dans l’apport de valeur ajoutée. Les capacités des responsables et des membres des associations locales de commerçants doivent également être renforcées non seulement pour promouvoir l’esprit d’entreprise, mais aussi pour garantir la gestion efficace des marchés et des centres agro-industriels, favorisant ainsi la durabilité des avantages des produits agricole.











www.fao.org/fsnforum/africa<http://www.fao.org/fsnforum/africa>





[log in to unmask]<http://www.fao.org/fsnforum/disclaimer-copyright>











########################################################################



To unsubscribe from the FSN-Dialogue-L list, click the following link:

https://listserv.fao.org/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=FSN-Dialogue-L&A=1


ATOM RSS1 RSS2