Youth participation key to food security and agricultural innovation – IITA DG

IITA – CGIAR Director General, Dr Simeon Ehui, has emphasized that youth involvement is crucial to the future of agriculture and global food security. He noted that youth play a strategic role in driving the adoption of innovative agricultural practices that boost productivity while safeguarding the environment.

The DG, represented by the Deputy Director-General, Partnerships for Delivery, Dr Tahirou Abdoulaye, spoke in Ibadan recently at this year’s International Youth Day event, organized by the IITA’s Youth in Agribusiness Unit (IYA). The event, themed ‘Local Youth Actions for the SDGs and Beyond,’ pointed out that the institute introduced the IYA over ten years ago to recognize young people’s pivotal role in sustainable agriculture and food security.

"IITA is a research and development institute, and we realized early enough that supporting young people to scale our technologies and share such innovations with the rest of the world positions them to contribute significantly to the attainment of Sustainable Development Goals like no poverty, zero hunger, decent work and economic growth, and Climate action. This is why our program for the youth has grown to become a movement. Now, we must make other youths across Africa realize that agriculture is profitable and sustainable." — Dr Simeon Ehui, Director General, IITA-CGIAR (represented by Dr Tahirou Abdoulaye)

"IITA is proud of the achievements of the Youth in Agribusiness Unit, in terms of the thousands of youth-led agribusinesses and jobs the unit has supported young people to create. We recognize the youth as one of the drivers of the SDGs and agricultural transformation, knowing that without the youth, the future of agriculture is in jeopardy." — Dr Simeon Ehui

In her remarks, Adetola Adenmosun, the Partnership and Stakeholder Engagement Manager at IYA, noted that the International Youth Day was about celebrating and reminding young people that they have key roles in bringing about the change they want to see in their communities.

"The Youth in Agribusiness unit of IITA started with about 20 corps members, but today, thousands of young farmers in several African countries have benefited from the programs, and many donor organizations have embraced our model as a viable means of engaging young people in agriculture. This means no idea is too small. Let us, as young people, endeavor to start small and have a plan to grow big. Many big businesses of today started small." — Adetola Adenmosun, Partnership and Stakeholder Engagement Manager, IITA Youth in Agribusiness (IYA)

The program featured a debate between four teams of corps members who, in pairs, spoke for and against topics including: ‘With capacity development and the right support, young women do better than their male counterparts in sustainable agribusiness and achieving the SDGs’ and ‘Is supporting the youth to embrace agribusiness a sustainable solution to unemployment and attainment of relevant SDGs?’

At the end of the competition, which sparked interest and elation from the audience, the winners and the first and second runners-up received farm inputs in their chosen commodities, worth thousands of naira.

One of the judges, the General Manager of BATN Foundation, Oludare Odusanya, encouraged young people to explore the vast opportunities in the agricultural sector, whether as entrepreneurs or employees. Odusanya, one of the pioneer corps members who started the IYA, added that there are vast opportunities across agricultural value chains for the youth to play profitably.

"On this special day to celebrate young people, I like to reiterate that there are vast opportunities across agricultural value chains for the youth to play profitably, including production, value addition, logistics, marketing, and branding. It is very profitable to own a farm now, but even without it, there are opportunities to be tapped and money to be made from this important sector." — Oludare Odusanya, General Manager, BATN Foundation

Other judges included Zainatou Sore, Head of the IITA Capacity Development Office (CDO); Dr Adebayo Adebola, Technology Transfer Officer at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI); and Dolapo Ogunsola, Director of Youth Empowerment at the African Agriculture Leadership Institute (AALI).

In her remarks, Sore reiterated the need for young people to explore the opportunities in agriculture, given the prominent role food would continue to play globally. Ogunsola charged young people, especially corps members, not to shy away from agriculture, saying it could be a launch pad for their career in either entrepreneurship or paid employment.

"At AALI, our mandate includes country advisory, youth empowerment, and private sector collaboration to accelerate Africa’s agricultural transformation." — Dolapo Ogunsola, Director of Youth Empowerment, African Agriculture Leadership Institute (AALI)

At the event, some of the young farmers who established their agribusiness enterprises after participating in the IITA Youth in Agribusiness program emphasized the need for the youth to embrace agribusiness opportunities. They noted that the training, input support, mentoring, and institutional support from IITA helped them to establish and scale up their enterprises.

Contributed by Jesutofunmi Robinson