FARA engages African youths on technology adoption in agri-prenuership

The Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa`s agricultural engagement workshop on the theme: “Strategic Engagements and Capacity Development of Youth in Agri-prenuership for Technology Adoption,” and scheduled for May 2-4 2019 has commenced in Accra, Ghana.

The three-day workshop is being co-hosted by FARA with Young Professionals in Agricultural Research for Development (YPARD) in partnership with African Development Bank (AfDB); West and Central Africa Council for Agricultural Research and Development (WECARD); as well as the AfDB-funded Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) programme, amongst others.

The capacity building event, which is being attended by over 60 young professionals in agriculture from across 20 African countries, is aimed at developing a set of guidelines on strategic engagement and capacity development of youth focused on agri-preneurship as well as scaling of technologies for increased productivity.

“As you attend the youth engagement workshop, I urge you to leverage the opportunity to ask questions and form networks with your peers to strengthen the enabling environment for technology adoption,” said Yemi Akinbamijo, executive director, Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) in his welcome message for the youth participants at the workshop. “I believe we all came with dreams of the future we want for our continent but as we all know, the difference between dreams and reality is having a plan of action and executing the plan. We, therefore, encourage you to think outside the box on how we can work together to operationalize technology deployment [in Africa].”

In December 2018, FARA launched an essay competition asking youths to articulate their experiences in agricultural engagement initiatives across Africa, including the context of agri-preneurship. This was aimed at informing FARA and its partners better, on how to effectively engage with and feature youths and women in agriculture in the context of implementing the Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP).

FARA received a total of 150 essays recounting the experiences of African youths as beneficiaries of various initiatives of diverse agricultural initiatives. The best 35 essays in the FARA-YPARD Africa Essay Competition tagged ‘#AgriYouthEngagement’ were selected to participate in the ongoing youth workshop on strategic engagement and capacity development for youth in agri-preneurship for technology adoption.

This article was originally published at African Newspage