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Many and varied are the challenges we Nigerian women farmers face, from lack of land to uncertain markets to the daily burden of maintaining the household. Working as day labourers brings its own uncertainties. No wonder a future in agriculture is unattractive to Nigerian youth.

By Susan Godwin, Nigerian Farmer

Why agriculture should be Africa’s top priority.

GENEVA (ILO News) - Economic growth in Africa is forecast to continue at a robust rate, slightly above the recent trend of 5 per cent a year. And, Africa is urbanizing fast, with an average of close to 40 per cent of the population living in cities.

The Commonwealth has developed its first index to monitor the development and empowerment of young people in its member countries.

The Youth Development Index measures the status of young people, aged 15-29, in five key domains: education, health, employment, and civic and political participation. It will assist youth ministers and other policy-makers in identifying areas for investment to ensure young people fulfil their potential.

The latest edition of New Agriculturist (2013-1) is now online at www.new-ag.info.

In this special edition of New Agriculturist, some of the achievements of the second Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development (GCARD2) held in Punte del Este in Uruguay in October 2012 are shared, and we look at how the Conference outcomes will be taken forward, through the plans and commitments of those involved in each area.

By David Asare Asiamah

Youth is an asset. Young people - the shapers of the future are an asset to society. Regardless of an increased public commitment to evidence-based policy in African agriculture, too often the profile of certain 'problems', and the imperative to rapidly address them through policy inventions and programmes, become disconnected from evidence and understanding.

Last week the Yale chapter of the International Society of Tropical Foresters webcast its annual conference, this year focused on Food and Forests: Cultivating Resilient Landscapes. This series of presentations and panel discussions provided a captivating window into the world of forestry expertise, which at times is challenged by increasing requests and requirements to collaborate with the agriculture and food security sectors.  In her keynote address, former Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) director general (and current special consultant to the Packard Foundation) Frances Seymour expressed concern about abolishing the barriers between forestry and agriculture.

According to Seymour, “the case for integrating forestry and agriculture across landscapes is abundantly clear.”* But, Seymour noted, there are real risks involved with merging forest interests with agriculture in a new “landscapes” category. Her worry was reinforced  through years of fighting for resources for forests as the head of the lone forestry organization within the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) system. “Taxonomy matters in bureaucracy. [...] There is some risk that the forestry part of the figurative landscape would be politically and institutionally overwhelmed by the agricultural part.”