A new report says Africa’s agrifood sector — which involves the processing, packaging and selling of locally produced food — could be the key to boosting employment rates, income and food security on the continent.
Experts in agriculture, engineering, ecology, nutrition and food security unveiled the 140-page report in Uganda on Wednesday, looking at the challenges young Africans face and the education and skills needed for jobs in the agrifood sector.
Rhoda Tumusiime, a former commissioner for rural economy and agriculture at the African Union, is one of the experts. She said the food business could improve the lives of African youths.
"Food trade provides an opportunity for youth to create jobs for themselves in agribusiness and improve socioeconomic development," Tumusiime said. The investments in agro-processing and its links to production, marketing and trade "will become a core employment-generating sector in agrifood systems."
The report provided examples. In Zambia, for instance, authorities launched YAPASA, a project to increase income for rural youth.
The project in the central African country promoted collaboration among different actors in the agriculture sector — mainly small farmers — and better connections between small producers and larger agribusinesses.
Coordinating with the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, the International Labor Organization and the Zambian government, YAPASA created 3,000 jobs and improved 5,000 youth-led rural enterprises.
The World Bank says Africa’s combined food and beverage markets are forecast to be valued at $1 trillion by 2030.
Ousmane Badiane, co-chair of the panel that released the report, told VOA it's important to craft youth-oriented policies to improve the business environment.
"Making policies much more sensitive to the needs and the ambition of the youth is going to be important," Badiane said. "Creating that space for engagement with youth is going to be something extremely important to do. Sustaining all of that into a couple of decades to come will require being able to sustain growth in the context of a changing climate, not just in terms of adaptation being resilient but also being able to find new ways of doing business."
According to the African Development Bank, 11 million youths join the job market each year, but only about 3 million formal jobs are created. In Africa, 120 million people between 15 and 35 are unemployed.
Dorothy Okello, a lecturer in engineering at Uganda's Makerere University, told VOA there is a need to connect opportunities in agriculture with students' educational backgrounds.
"Can we have, for example, Uberization, if I may use the word, of tractor services?" she asked, referring to an arrangement in which one tractor would be made available to a number of farmers. "How do we creatively use engineering to come up with solutions for that?" She also pointed to people with backgrounds in creative or industrial arts whose skills could be tapped to help producers enhance the appeal of their goods on the market.
Experts are calling on African governments to empower youth by addressing trade barriers, investing in technology, and involving youth in policy formulation and decision-making.
