Youth In Agriculture Policy and Implementation Plan.

The Youth in Agriculture Policy is a sectoral nation-wide document aiming at creating an enabling environment for youth’s transition to, and investment in the agricultural and fisheries sectors, taking into consideration the entire value chain for both conventional and organic production systems. The YIAPIP involves cross-cutting issues which transcend the agricultural and rural sectors and cuts across the existing division of functions and responsibilities of various institutions of the public sector to build a platform to address issues facing youth in agriculture, develop the right mix of policies and strategies that meet their needs and aspirations, while simultaneously increasing their effective participation in the agricultural sector. This can be an important means of improving agricultural development, food and nutrition security, youth livelihoods and employment.
The Vision of the Policy is "Youth are empowered for full participation in the agricultural sector through leadership and enterprise development that will bring about profitability, innovation and environmental sustainability". The overall goal of the Policy is to provide an enabling environment to facilitate the development of successful youth involvement in the agricultural sector. To achieve the goal, four main objectives need to be reached, namely (i) build capacity of youth to successfully transition into, and participate in the agricultural sector; (ii) provide an enabling environment for agricultural enterprise creation and development, leveraging the value chain; (iii) equip youth with knowledge and skills to participate in agriculture and other related sectors; and (iv) improve the perception, appreciation and legitimization of the agricultural sector among youth. Consequently, the four key thematic areas to intervene covered by the document are (i) agribusiness development to exploit the multiple business opportunities of the agricultural sector that need to be repackaged to attract youth in selecting careers along the agricultural value chain; (ii) youth agro-entrepreneurship to create opportunity driven youth agro-entrepreneurs focusing on leveraging the entire value chain for growth, sustainability and transformation of the sector through the use of sophisticated knowledge skills, technology and innovation; (iii) agricultural education and training to meet the demands of a modern agricultural sector through better coordination to minimize overlaps, optimize resources among existing institutions, respond to emerging areas to fill manpower gaps and emphasize agro-processing (new value addition techniques), agro-mechanization, water management, climate resilience, agro-energy, agricultural health and food safety; and (iv) public education and awareness to promote careers and business opportunities and improve the perceptions of youth about the agricultural sector and its acceptance through programs targeted at youth at different stages of their life and within the education system, implemented in collaboration with the private sector, farmers’ and fishers’ organizations and other stakeholders in the youth sector. In this regard, Government shall create a National Committee on Agriculture Education and Training for oversight of national agricultural education and training in line with the objectives of the agricultural sector and national education outcomes.
To make agriculture more productive and sustainable, the Policy seeks for (i) creating an appreciation of the importance of sustainable agriculture and the environment; and (ii) implementing sustainable school gardens programs in all public schools, including the growing of crops, rearing of animals, containerized garden, aeroponics, aquaponics, aquaculture, permaculture, greenhouse production, nursery operations, organic agriculture, etc.
In order to enable more inclusive and efficient agricultural and food systems, main interventions are directed to (i) simplifying the processes for accessing financing and land for agriculture; (ii) providing support to farmers’ and fishers’ organizations and other communities based organizations in building their capacity to access and provide business advisory support their membership; and (iii) developing and providing, from the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA) and the Ministry of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries (MICAF), adequate, accessible and comprehensible information on value chain and market opportunities, using appropriate web-based platforms.
As for the Governance, the innovative aspect of this Policy is that young people should be seen as key stakeholders who can contribute to developing sound policies and implementing effective programs aiming at the redevelopment of the agricultural sector. By taking this approach, the right mix of strategies that meet the needs and aspirations of youths can be developed, while simultaneously increasing their participation in the agricultural sector.