The Resilience Builders: How Young Africans Are Transforming Food Systems from Within
"The YEFFA Learning Event 2026 in Mozambique, hosted by AGRA in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation, brought together partners, practitioners, policymakers, and young people from across Africa to explore how young people are driving more resilient and inclusive agri‑food systems. Through a mix of knowledge exchange and field visits in Nampula Province, the convening offered […]"
The YEFFA Learning Event 2026 in Mozambique, hosted by AGRA in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation, brought together partners, practitioners, policymakers, and young people from across Africa to explore how young people are driving more resilient and inclusive agri‑food systems.
Through a mix of knowledge exchange and field visits in Nampula Province, the convening offered a first‑hand look at how investment in youth is translating into real opportunities on the ground. One of those stories is Laura Cardoso's.
Laura Cardoso was nineteen when she decided that farming could be something more than survival. Growing up in northern Mozambique, she had watched agriculture demand everything from the people around her and return so little in kind. Long seasons, uncertain harvests, markets that felt out of reach.
For many, especially young women, the path forward was narrow. But Laura saw something others had stopped looking for: the possibility that things could be different. That belief, it turns out, is exactly what resilience looks like when it is young.
Across Africa, a generation is redefining resilience, not as endurance alone, but as the ability to confront challenges with ingenuity and build new pathways forward. Young people are launching agribusinesses, adopting climate‑smart practices, and reshaping local food economies from within. They are not a future promise, but a present force.
Through the Youth Entrepreneurship for the Future of Food and Agriculture (YEFFA) initiative, implemented alongside local partner Miruku, Laura strengthened her skills in farming, business organisation, and market engagement. The training invested in her potential. What she did with it was entirely her own.
She built a peer‑led training model rooted in shared experience, returning to her community and bringing others forward with her. To date, she has trained more than 300 young farmers, most of them women, strengthening their productivity, confidence, and access to markets. By organising farmers into collectives and linking them to reliable buyers, she has facilitated the sale of over 30 metric tonnes of maize, transforming subsistence farming into sustainable income.
One young woman decided things could be different. 300 farmers are now living that difference.
This is the resilience AGRA is working to build, not as a response to crisis, but as a foundation for lasting change in the continent. Through YEFFA, implemented in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation, AGRA is connecting young people to the skills, finance, and networks that enable them to lead.
Because the most durable food systems are not built on aid. They are built on people. On young people, in particular, who carry both the urgency of the present and the imagination to shape what comes next.
Laura’s story is not an exception. It is a signal of what becomes possible when youth resilience is recognised, invested in, and given room to grow.
Deep Analysis
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Key Impact
- Laura Cardoso has trained over 300 young farmers, most of them women, in northern Mozambique, boosting their productivity and market access.
- Through collective marketing, Laura facilitated the sale of more than 30 metric tonnes of maize, turning subsistence farming into a reliable income source.
- The YEFFA Learning Event 2026 in Mozambique demonstrated that targeted youth investment directly creates measurable improvements in local food systems.
Background
- The YEFFA initiative, led by AGRA with Mastercard Foundation support, aims to equip young Africans with skills, finance, and networks to transform agri-food systems.
- In Ghana, similar youth-focused programs like the Planting for Food and Jobs campaign have sought to engage young people in modern agriculture, but face challenges in scaling.
- Laura’s story emerged from a field visit in Nampula Province, where partners saw how peer-led training and market linkages are reshaping rural economies.
Benefits
- Young entrepreneurs like Laura build climate-smart agribusinesses that increase food security and reduce reliance on rain-fed subsistence farming.
- Peer-to-peer training models, rooted in shared experience, rapidly spread improved practices and confidence among women and youth in farming communities.
- Collective marketing helps smallholder farmers in Ghana, such as those in the Northern Region, secure better prices and stable buyers for crops like maize and cowpea.
Risks & Warnings
- Without sustained access to affordable credit and land, young agripreneurs in Ghana may struggle to scale their enterprises beyond pilot phases.
- Market volatility and post-harvest losses, especially for perishables like tomatoes in the Upper East Region, can undermine the gains from youth-led initiatives.
- Dependence on donor-funded programs like YEFFA risks discontinuity if local government or private sector support does not fill gaps after project ends.
Who Is Affected
- Young women in rural communities benefit most from peer-led training, gaining both farming skills and leadership opportunities to break cycles of poverty.
- Smallholder farmers in Mozambique’s Nampula Province and similar settings in Ghana’s Bono East region see improved incomes and market access through collective sales.
- Local institutions like Miruku in Mozambique and Ghana’s Ministry of Food and Agriculture are directly involved in implementing and sustaining youth-focused resilience programs.
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