FARA hosts African youth in agriculture

The Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) in collaboration with the Young Professionals for Agricultural Development (YPARD) hosting more than sixty young men and women, involved in diverse agricultural value chains, at the FARA Secretariat in Accra. The participants have been drawn from twenty-six countries across the region.

The three-day workshop is being organized as part of FARA’s efforts to effectively scale up proven innovative technologies within the Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT)’s ten tier one countries and subsequently across the continent. This role is within the context of the Capacity Development and Technology Outreach Enabler Compact (CDTO) which is FARA’s commitment to TAAT.

TAAT is an initiative of the African Development Bank (AfDB) aimed at improving the business of agriculture across Africa as part of the Feed Africa Program.

The main objective of the youth workshop is to develop a set of guidelines on strategic engagement and capacity development of youth focused on agripreneurship and scaling of technologies for increased productivity.

Opening the workshop on behalf of the Executive Director of FARA, Dr. Irene Annor-Frempong, Director for Research and Innovation urged the participants to leverage the opportunities and platforms that the workshop offers so that will be able to impact their communities when they return to their home countries. She encouraged the participants to stay invigorated so they will be able to achieve the set objectives.

Over the course of the workshop, participants will explore the diverse youth engagement initiatives in the various countries, brainstorm on ideas for a continental Youth Engagement Strategy, draft cases of experience capitalization, be taken through TAAT value chains, Innovation Platforms and Knowledge Management among others.

It is expected that deliberations at this workshop will lead to the development of a practical and realistic action plan to strengthen youth initiatives for technology deployment. This includes reinforcing activities of the youth activities within the YPARD Africa network for example.

Also, the documentation of the capitalized experiences of youth engaged in agripreneurship will help identify opportunities for youth employment. Youth and women-led enterprise development will also be identified within the TAAT value chains through innovation platforms.

Eventually, the discussions are expected to validate the existing draft framework on what will be more effective in building capacity for agripreneurship development within TAAT value chains, as well as key areas to focus on, when developing Africa’s youth agripreneurship strategy.

Photo credit: Nawsheen Hosenally