The African continent is the home and has the highest demographic age group population of youth aged between 18-35 years old with over 200 million, to top it off, the youth population is predicted to peak in 20 years. With increasing rural to urban migration of young people, around three quarter of African youth still live in rural communities. With the rapid ever-increasing global agricultural innovation, African youth are indeed capable in playing a critical role in revitalizing rural communities by tapping into their skills, energy, creativity and willingness to take risks that would enhance agricultural productivity. However, there is a gap between young people who are passionate about agriculture and those that do not want nothing to it. The world population is constantly increasing, so is food insecurities thus we need the youth to take charge and lead the food production systems to be able to make a good living, create generational wealth and feed the world. There are quite a number of reasons on why the youth should engage in agribusinesses. Bear in mind that agribusiness entails everything from farm to fork, be it production, manufacturing, logistics, storage facilities or wholesaling of agro-produce. No matter the stage of production, whether you’re into agriculture or not, businesses are somehow influenced by agribusiness.
As aforementioned, even though some youth are not keen about farming, there is a trend of youth venturing into various agribusinesses such as transportation of produce or agro-processed products from the farm, manufacturer and to the wholesale. We appreciate that the trend of youth devoted to agribusinesses is growing everyday through innovative ideas that are bound to change the world. It is through the youth that we’re able to link artificial intelligence and digitalization to make farm operations easier. Young educated Africans in the diaspora are returning to the motherland to take advantage of their Government’s agricultural schemes which contribute towards enhancing food production, and those young African graduates are resorting to agribusinesses to curb unemployment and become individuals with great business acumen.
Venturing into agribusinesses is certainly a long-term gold mine that guarantees great returns when done properly, including the fact that living beings require food every day. Youth agripreneurs have testified that indeed agribusinesses has assisted in improving their livelihoods, those of their families and the people who work for them, hence reducing poverty, improving household income and food security as well as boosting shared prosperity. Living in today’s world were social media networking is the key to success and security, that’s if utilized properly. The youth have resorted to using social media networks were they promote their businesses and network with the business opportunity. The use of social media is the primary key tool responsible for making youth agripreneurs trendy which go viral through captions and hashtags that have made agribusiness in the developing world becoming a vibrant field with effective innovations, all thanks to youth trendy and techie minds that make it happen.
Africa also possess young vibrant scientists engaged in research and development of where they will contribute their findings towards agricultural development and innovation. The western, Asian and European continents are evident that research in agriculture drives agribusiness innovation. Also East-Africa which is considered as Africa’s agriculture hub have shown that research revolutionizes agriculture and transforms livelihoods. As we are experiencing the harsh consequences of climate change, there is a growing demand for nutritious food hence we need to explore the STEM arrear to seek fresh ideas and renew knowledge in agriculture that foster climate- smart agriculture turn the sector into powerhouse for future growth.
