IITA Youth Agripreneurs, the future of Agriculture? 2
To promote ICT entrepreneurship in
agriculture among the youth, the International Institute of Tropical
Agriculture (IITA) Youth Agripreneurs group runs an incubator programme,
trainings, and establishes ICT entrepreneurial activities itself. The incubator
programme equips startups to establish profitable businesses that solve
agricultural problems using ICT.
An e-commerce platform has also been
setup for the sale of agricultural produce for farmers, buyers and others along
the value chain.
Positive
The impression one gets about IITA Youth
Agripreneurs (IYA) is that it has been very effective in using e-agriculture to
attract youths to agriculture. Developments have been positive. Young people
must take centre stage in farming not for just for transforming and growing the
agriculture sector but for sustainable development in Africa.
Youth
unemployment is one the rise and in view of the terribly low proportion of
young people in farming, IYA is a welcome development. The youth and ICT
entrepreneurship is angle is quite forward looking. Essentially, this
innovative group has shown that using efficient tech and the building of
capacity, young people can run agriculture as a business.
Moving Forward
There is however a need to increase the local
content in the technologies being adopted to ensure sustainability.
Regular monitoring and evaluation is
also essential for such a program making such an impact in agribusiness. This is
the only way to know if it is meeting expectations and also if it can meet future
needs. For example is what is being done about scaling and replicating
successful models? It is expected that performance is evaluated periodically.
It is also important that IYA goes
beyond its traditional circles to engage with other stakeholders, especially in
tech to widen coverage and deepen impact. Inclusion is critical. Engagement is
required beyond the usual circles. Open mindedness and willingness to listen to
different ideas are critical in this age.
The Digital: Tools Essential, But Culture matters
IYA has realized the importance of using
social media and ICT tool to help in building groups of young professionals in
agriculture. Already the group leverages such platforms to share relevant
information. Monitoring of trending issues in the sector and greater capacity
building are all critical. IYA is also advised to improve the level of
awareness on its activities. It should be noted as well that the digital era demands
that the use of these tools and infrastructure should go along with a culture
of responsiveness and action.
There is no doubt that young people are
change agents required to revive and grow the sector through modern
technologies and innovations. The future of agriculture is the youth. IYA is an
encouraging and commendable effort towards sustainable agriculture. It is not
only a formidable platform of young AgriTech professionals, but can be a wind
of change in the agricultural sector.
Jide Awe
Founder, Jidaw
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