The Country Director of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), Nigeria, Rufus Idris, has called for greater involvement of young people in Nigeria’s agriculture and agribusiness sector to transform the country’s food system.

The Country Director made the call at a two-day convening of Agripreneurs themed “From Dialogue to Action”, is hosted by AGRA under the Youth Entrepreneurship for the Future of Food and Agriculture (YEFFA) programme, delivered in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation.
He said the programme was designed to place young people at the centre of Africa’s food system transformation, noting that the continent cannot effectively address food insecurity without engaging its youthful population.

Stressing the ageing population of African farmers, He said, “We cannot transform Nigeria’s food system without putting young people in the place that they are supposed to be. They are supposed to be at the centre of this design.”

Idris said agriculture had moved beyond the traditional use of hoes and cutlasses, stressing the need for young entrepreneurs to deploy technology, data and innovation to improve productivity and access global markets.

He identified access to finance, land, technology, innovation, extension services and weather advisory as some of the major barriers limiting young people’s participation in agribusiness.

The AGRA country director also stressed the need for climate-smart agricultural practices, saying climate change had become a major factor affecting farming.

He said YEFFA would support young people across the agricultural value chain, from production and aggregation to processing, value addition, logistics, marketing, policy development and implementation.

Idris said the programme would work with universities, the National Agricultural Land Development Agency, state governments and the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) to open up arable land for young people interested in agriculture.

The Representative of MasterCard Foundation Mr Ayodele Olaleye said There is no how we can design a program that will will help address challenges facing young farmers without getting their input.

He stated that the YEFFA programme being implemented in other African countries was brought to Nigeria to further impact the youths which will further have ripple effect in the household they represent.

Also speaking, the Team Lead of Green Republic Farms and Regional Coordinator of KAYAK in West Africa, Baliqees Salaudin Ibrahim said YEFFA would provide young agribusiness entrepreneurs with an integrated support system.

She said the initiative would help to bring together fragmented interventions and connect young people to opportunities across the agricultural ecosystem, from rural communities to urban markets.

She identified insecurity, rural-urban migration, inadequate infrastructure and limited access to finance, poor road infrastructure and inadequate production and processing facilities as major challenges facing young farmers and agribusiness owners.

While stressing the need for a specialized financing for the agricultural sector given its high risk nature, Ibrahim called for intentional and youth-focused financing for agribusinesses. She stated that financing interventions for agriculture should not be treated in the same way as those for other sectors.